STOOK AND GRAZING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 8

STOOK AND GRAZING NOTES.

1

Bt Dbotu.

W»okly Stock Sales: [ Monthly: Burn s:de, Wednesdays ' Xgapara, first ThuraAtkburion. Tuesdays day in each month Addiu-ton, Wednesdays &len«vy, second V edWaiareta Rail war »«**•>• « «<* nwnth Junction, Tuesdaj s Duntroon, second Fn- ' ' day in each month Fortnightly: Clinton, Palmer«ton, B.«lelutha. Fridays Winton, and WaiGoro, Tuesdays kouaiti. Ownatu, Tuesdays Periodically: .J-jverc^rgjl!, Tuesdays Heriot, Kelso, Kyeburn

La-^t week the stock markets at Addinglon and Bumside showed that the gocd rains experienced had had tho effect of making the store sheep market a little brisker. Canterbury and North Otago farmers have :iot had quite sufficient rain yet to make rhom care to take on moie atock than they hold at pretent. The markets are generally over supplied with old ewes off the fihc-ar-i, and, of course, prices had to come down. Good .«tore sheep, however, are not offered at all freely.

Br Dbotu. Wwkly Stock Sales: [ Monthly: Burn s:de, Wednesdays ' Xgapara, first ThuraAtkburion. Tuesdays day in each month Addiu-ton, Wednesdays Glenavy, second V edWaiareta Kailwav " esd «>' > n each 1 Junction, Tuesdaj 9 Dimtroon, second Pri- ' J day in each month Fortnightly: Clinton, Palm«r«ton, B.«lclutha. Fridays Winton, and WaiGoro, Tuesdays kouaiti. Oimaru, Tuesdays Periodically: .J-jverc^rgjl!, Tuesdays Heriot, Kelso, Kyeburn La^t week the stock markets at Addinglon and Bumside showed that the gocd rains experienced had had tho effect of uiakj ing the store sheep market a little brisker. 1 Canterbury and North Otago farmers have i :iot had quite sufficient rain yet to make • rhom care to take on moie atock than they I hold at pretent. The markets are gener1 ally over supplied with old ewes oft" the ! fthe-ari, and, of course, prices had to come ! down. Good .«tore sheep, however, are not offered at all freely. Export buyers at Addington were operating -somewhat freely in lambs, and paid 14a to 16s for prime freeze r«. By January the lamb season in Canterbury will be in full swing, and shipments will be hca\y. Export buyers <lo not at present operate to any extent in mutton. A full account is to hand of the case of the British Tea Table Co. v. a $mithfield meat salesman. The company run a large I number of restaurants, and contracted wifii ' Ihe meat salesman, who agreed to supply I the best quality of English meat. There was a schedule attached to the contract in which the various joints and the respective prices to be paid for them were fixed on a buya that the meat was to be according to the contract, "p&t English." Thio contract had been running since 1906, or for I 18 months, and the amount of meat used 1 by tho company amounted to £30,000 per anjwzn- It was proved in evidence that all, tv nearly all, tie meat supplied and invoiced as English <js per the contraot, was in fact frozen meat. The company ran some 70 or 80 restaurants and tea rooms. It was in 190/, about 16 months after tho ( commencement of the contract that a new

Export buyers at Addington were operating -somewhat freely in lambs, and paid 14a to 16s for prime freezers. By January the lamb season in Canterbury will be in full swing, and shipments will be hea\y. Export buyers <lo not at present operate to any extent in mutton.

A full account is to hand of the case of

manager under a new directorate found out what had been going on, and the result was the action. Ihe evidence here referred to showed that some of the managers of depots received free joints of meat from the contractor; also that they stipulated for home-killed meat (thar is, English) to put in the restaurant window for show purposes, as the defrosted meat was unsightly. At these restaurants no doubt the waiters told the confiding customers that all the meat was English, and seemed the idea of common colonial frozen mutton, and yet it is evident customers were eating frozen meat, always believing it to be "best English." What a confiding, simple lot the British public are, and how easily managed if 5-ou flatter their insular prejudices and vanity. Mr Offen, the new manager, stated emphatically that the result of his investigations and inquiries was to show that practically no English meat was supplied under tho contract. It appeared from the evidence that frozen meat was also supplied to Pembroke and Trinity Colleges, these learned institutions taking to it kindly as English. Counsel for the defence was cross-examining a witness as to what was English meat, and, of course, trying to bamboozle him ; but the judge interposed with the remark that English meat was English meat bred and killed in England, and that otherwise one might as well call the English soldiers killed at the battle of Waterloo Belgians. In proof of the fact that this frozen meat suited the customers who swallowed it as English, the evidence showed that the lunch trade at the restaurants did not 6uffer during the course of the contract, and that the meat was mainly consumed at the lunch or 1 o'clock dinner. The company did not contend the meat supplied was other than good. What they did say and prove was that they contracted for English meat, and paid a higher price for it than they could have got frozen meat for. The defendants caved in and settled the case by paying a handsome sum of money to the British Tea Table Company. This is one of very many exposures of the general practice in regard to our frozen mutton and beef, and I think tome of the leading men in the frozen meat trade should see that the British public are guiled no longer ; also show them by every sort of demonstration that frozen mutton is wholesome, and nearly as good as Home-killed — quite good enough for anyone. — and that nearly every healthy man in England is a proof of it, as for years most of them, whether they know it or not, have been fed on frozen meat, and would have about starved but for it. It is time something was done, for our supplies of meat 'are increasing, and we want to have the British public appreciate frozen meat "undisguised," as they have in most cases appreciated it "disguised" under the name of English or Scotch for many years i>ast. We want, in fact, to let the British public see that we want them as customers ,for the really good article we supply, and that if they will get rid of their prejudices they will get frozen meat, for which in the past they have paid the price of English, at a cheaper rate. The pandering to the fraudulent meat salej-m-en winked at, if not actually encouraged, in the past is a. mistake, and in the long run will do us no good. Just to show the ignorance and prejudice common in England, even so well-conducted a j>a,per as the Standard allows correspondents to libel our meat in its columns. The Pastoralista' Review says: — "A correspondent of the Standard states thai many illnesses from ptomaine poisoning have been traced to the eating of frozen meat — a base libel. There is only one on record — that of a frozen leg of mutton 6ome years ago, and that case was shown to arise from defective keeping after the joint was first partaken of hot. But it is a delicate matter to engage in controversy just now on this subject, as one might be met vrii.h the enormous seizure in Glasgow of the New Zealand boneless beef."

Re this boneless meat, I supported Mr Gilruth years ago when he said that the export of this article would tell against uo. as ignorant inspectors would condemn it for its unsightliness, even although it was free from disea-se. This was proved to bo the ease. Here is another sample of ignorant prejudice: — It is really ridiculous (considering the ignorance displayed) how (he paupers in the unions in this country are being fed with the highest-priced meat. The Brighton Guardians have bsen conducting trials to ccc how English ox beef and American chilled work out in net cost per cooked lb ; the former came to 4-s 2d per stono, the latter 3s Bd. The Brighton paupers are to be fed by the ratepayers (many of whom are pleased to eat imported frozen at considerably loss cost) with the primo-st ox beef, f-o the decision is. Folly and exira\aguiice I call it. It would not r-urpn^c 11:0 to learn that many of these \vi->eacre o lunch at the British Tea Table le-tauiants mentioned abovo, and ha\e, with thousands mere, eaten there — and, indeed, at all hotels and re stauiant- and in thc-ir honie^ — New Zealand fiozcn mution, sue! enjoyed it as "English."'

T give Lelow an extract from an editorial in the London Grocer which, for arrant Jion^en^o, ir would be hard to match. The "reprehensible practice" spoken of wu of English origin. The practice has been carried out all along by English houses, and if they Buffer they Wing it on themsclve*. Here- is the quotation: —

On the threshold of the new season for colonial butter the probable course of quotations is being- keenly canvassed. Th« past season was a disastrous one, as most, if not all. of the profits made by "the rise were subsequently lost by the remarkable decline in quotations which was the natural outcome of undue inflation. In the colonial butter trade there is » considerable amount of speculation, and serious risks are run necessarily through the mod* in which business Is conducted. In order to secure consignments for this side there is excessive competition among the various agents, who thereby place themselves to some extent in. the hands °f the Bel)era in New Zealand, the latter having matters much their own war. It is not an ideal state of affairs, and those people who have paid the highest price sometimes find that they have paid above market value. Within recent yerar3 a. reprehensible practice has grown up in the New Zealand butter trade. We refer to the system of making contracts for th© purchase of the output of various factories tor the season, altogether zegftrdless as to how the weather m«y turn out. It is a; departure from the ueual conduct of business, and introduces a highly speculative element, who play their own game, regardless of the consequences to the genuine trader. Few commodities are free from manipulation at times, and speculation will fiud an outlet whatever may be urged to the contrary, but where the ordinary l&ws of busmen oca..-

ings are interfered with and the couTse of markets and prices rests on an artificial basis, it not infrequently happens that losses accrue to the least responsible parties. In other words, business conducted on such lines is only a form of gambling. Many men who would not go to a race mes-tiug nor back a. horse will buy butter to be made from, say. October to April in New Zealand, arriving here about six weeks later. This is a most pernicious form of gambling, as it is realiy " backing the weather," especially when it is well understood that output is an unknown quantity ; it brings into prominence the gambler, and sets "aside the bona fide trader. Allowing for any conflict of opinion, the belief is current in Kew Zealand that before next season is over " output " contracts in New Zealand will be declared illegal by the Government there, as th«y have proved to be to the detriment of trade. I (have not yet seen the idiot spoken of who believes that the New Zealand Government will declare output contracts illegal. The butter factories that sold outputs this year have done well, and those who consigned will suffer. With cheese I think the sellers have slightly the best of it. The shipments of butter from Otago by the Ruapchu consist of 1600 boxes by the Taieri and Peninsula Company — about 200 boxes milled and dairy butter and 1360 cases cheese. Xo butter goes from Southland, but this is compensated for by a shipment of 4126 cases cheese. This, be it observed, is the regular fortnightly shipment, and represents in money distributed among farmers for the fortnight £5000 fox butter and £15.500 for cheese. This goes en fortnightly to the end of April. The dairy industry is therefore a good one for »the farmers.