NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 19

NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND PRODUCE.

(Fbou Oub Own Gobbhsfohdbht.) London, September 14.

Mr 0. R. Valentine, the Government produce inspector, has written a very valuable report on British agriculture in the current season, pointing out clearly in what respect* the English agricultural experiences of the year bear upon New Zealand interests, and what lessons may be learned from them. There is nothing new in regard to wool. The Antwerp sales (third series) opened last Tuesday, when there was a fair attendance of buyers, but the quality of wool offered was indifferent, Prices of Australian and Now Zealand wool remained at latest London rotes, bnt leading London brokers point out to me that the quantity to be realised in Antwerp is so insignificant and that the buying interest there is so partial that the results afford little or no criterion us to the probable course of prices during the coming auctions in Louden. These London sales begin next Tuesday, and the arrivals up to date comprise 234,404- bales, of which 107,746, or nearly one half, come from New Zealand. But 74,000 bales, including 38,000 from Australia and New Zealand, have been forwarded dircot to manufacturing districts. I hear that coma 2500 bales have been sold privately eiucethe last public auctions at an advance of £d to Id per lb. This is thought to promise well for the coming sales. It ia noteworthy that in spite of all that has been said nboufc the glut of frozen mutton in the London market the price of English mutton has kept up to a remunerative point. One would have supposed that the alleged excess of meat which could be sold and was bsiug sold as best English mutton would have tended to depress the value of the latter ; but this has not been the case so far. Qn Che other hand, the British sheepbrecders are devoting special attention to the improvement of their flooks, under the firm conviction that the Only way In which they can fairly fight the competition of imported meat if by taking care that their own product shall be the best possible. > Attention has been called by Mr O. R. Valentine, the Government produce expert, to vi 9 systematic way in which the prices of rams have gone np at Bales in the case of the best types, while they have fallen in the case of inferior qualities. But he points out for the guidance of New Zealand breeders and importers that the very high figures often realised 4jb the sales must' be accspted with several grains of salt. ■< fie cays the thing is worked in this way :— A goes to B's sale and runs np a ram to three figures ; B, really wanting some of A's rams, by arrangement does the same ; the difference is split, and B gets bis ram for a proper price, but jthe nominal prices are published and swell the average ! Mr Valentine admits that this is not 'always the case with regard to fancy prices, but tie maintains that it does occur, and consequently that quotations of very high rates for .rams must be accepted with some distrust. Be Remarks that pedigree ewes are bringing uniformly good prices. ''*• As an instance of recent top prices at a ram sale, that of Mr A. B. Mensell, in Shropshire, jbay be quoted, at which rams fetched 200gs, llOge, 60gs, 40gs, and many over 20gs, these, too, feeing " genuine prioes." At Mr Beach's sale, jjear Wolverhampton, 125gs and many prices over 40gs wers realised. There is a large foreign demand for this Shropshire breed, which Mr Valentine says is ** always distinguished for the pare quality of the sheep — small bone, lean meat, weu-wooiled, level." He adds that the Shropshire sheep "thrives In the temperate colonies, and is perhaps the best mutton sheep at Home.** • Mr Valentine lays stress on the large extent to which inferior River Plate mutton is palmed toff on the publio as "best New Zealand" or "Canterbury" me*t, certain shops professing to sell this when in reality nothing but Plate muttoq— tough sad stringy— is sold. He fthinki i It would bet* the interest of the colony to assist toe effort that is being made here to provide that things shall be what they seem fmd bo sold for what they are, and he says that the marfdflg of meat or the licensing of shops for the sale pf imported meat, provided it was l&old under its true colours, would have the effect of enhancing the price of New Zealand tnuttoD, for much Is sold under the name that .|s not New Zealand mutton. {Thi» ie no doubt true, but the trouble so far fias been that nobody yet has been able to devise any plan by which meat can be effectively ■narked without injury. I quite agree crith fIW Valentine, and I hare Investigated the matter very widely. A eatis-

all in New Zealand's favour if rigorously enforced and honestly carried onfc ; out the fact remains that no really feasible or practical method has yet been devised or suggested. Here is an opening for the inventive {jeniua of some New Zealand Edison." In the case of New Zealand butter the came can hardly be said, as butter is sold more on its own merits and irrespective of its place of origin. If butter is good it wil 7 sell no matter whence it comes, and if it is bad no cachet will find it a profitable market. In the case of this particular item of produce all the New Zealand producer has to do it to send a thoroughly good article and to see that it goes to brokers who will deal with it fairly in the market and nob force its sale in adverse circumstances for the mere sake of effecting a clearance. But Mr Vsleutine suggests that colonial pressure might advantageously bs brought to bear on the enforcing of the margarine laws and of the legislation referring to butter substitutes, for the fraudulent tale of these as butter affects the ooleniei as well as the mother country. This suggestion deserves attention, as New Zealand butter would undoubtedly stand a better chance if had $> face only the legitimate competition of genuine butter — English, Irish, or Danish — in&fceftd of having to compete with various cheap subatitates which are offered as " beet fresh."