GOOD NEWS.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1173, 7 April 1884, Page 2

GOOD NEWS.

An item of good news to settlers is contained in a London telegram dated March 24, to the Melbourne Age. The telegram states that a company is being floated, to be known as the London and Colonial Meat Company, with a capital of £600,000. The object of the Company is to supply its members with Colonial Frozen Meat at a cheap rate. The general public will r.lso be supplied and the meat delivered from the Company’s establishment in carts specially constructed for the purpose. This announcement comes at a very opportune time in New Zealand, for although it cannot be said that the frozen meat trade has a languishing tendency, still there is considerable disappointment at the poor prices lately realised. But the present unsatisfactory state of things can be accounted for. There has been no organised system of placing the meat upon the market. Cargoes have arrived one on top of another, and consigned to a multitude of agents. The agents have been competing one against the other to quit their consignments and with the natural result, a falling off in prices. Then again, unscrupulous tradesmen have done their best to depreciate the value of Colonial meat in the opinions of their customers, and at the same time they have palmed off the “ Colonial rubbish,” upon them as prime Home grown meat. All these things and many more of which colonists are not cognisant, have tended to keep prices down, and we arc glad therefore to notice that a powerful company is in course of formation for the purpose of retailing the genuine article under its proper name. There can be no question whatever that growers have not been receiving a fair price for their mutton, and in this respect an alteration for the bettor must be brought about if the industry is to progress. And one of the first steps towards this desired result will have to be concentration. All shipments will, we think, have to be consigned to one Company, such as that now proposed to be formed. The advantages would be that the moat could be properly and widely distributed, thus avoiding any chance of a glut in the London market, which has hitherto been tfcßu n SiVf)pffl3B, 'ih'af in a"iapflazara fashion. Fresh channels of consumption will be opened up by the Company, and, above all, the meat will be placed on the market in a better condition than it sometimes has been. It is beginning to be understood that thawing the meat 1 is nearly as important as freezing it, A correspondent, writing to a southern paper upon this very subject of a large distributing company and urging the formation of one, gives some use-

ful hints about his experience. He thinks a company should be started and freezing warehouses erected in some suitable locality—say near the month of the Thames—whence the meat could be forwarded to any part of the United Kingdom by rail. He says: —“ Alongside of such freezing depots there ought to be thawing chambers, and every carcase properly thawed in dry air not exceeding 40 deg Fahrenheit. Properly frozen meat so thawed will look exactly like the Scottish meat killed in the north of Scotland when it reaches London, and, as I have proved myself, it requires to be kept, and will keep thoroughly sweet and sound and pleasant to the eye from two to seven days (according to season) before being fit for the table. When properly frozen, and afterwards properly thawed in cold, dry air, it cannot be told from English meat. This I have repeatedly proved. On the other hand, if taken from the frozen chamber on a wet or muggy day, the meat thaws too rapidly, there is no evaporation going on, it becomes limp, and flabby, and unsightly, and when cut up or cooked the juices flow out of it, and the meat is destroyed. I would, therefore, put it beyond the power of any butcher or buyer to allow this state of things to happen. This can only be done by having a thawing chamber.” The extract quoted above furnishes a powerful argument in favour of focussing the business at Home into one large concern, and it should be gratifying to our farmers to learn that the same opinion prevails in London, and is about to be given effect to. From whatever point it is looked at, the project appears favourable, the leading features being a minimum of expenses in connection with handling, an improvement in the marketable condition of the meat, extended range of consumption, and consequently higher prices. This makes the outlook more cheering, and should act as a stimulant to our local Company to push on the freezing branch of its business, for which it was mainly established.