AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 12956, 15 January 1913, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

WINNING- AMERICA'S PLACE. [ OPPORTUNITIES IN FRANCE. '>■ SYDNEY, ' 'January 2. In view of the , comparatively* high price of 'Beef consumers Avill not welcome a suggestion to send more frozen meat away to Europe. As the resources of the Northern Territory are more fully developed., hoAyever, it is probable that Australia, will have a large exportable surplus of beef which will have to find a market abroad. A recent cable message from America stated that the number of cattle consigned to the Chicago slaughter-yards in 1912 was 281,298 less than in 1911, but that the amount which stock-raisers ob-tained-was £130,000 more, than in the preceding year. One cannot say exactly if this shortage is due to a bad season, but it must be, to a great extent, the result of closer settlement and the spread of farming in the western States. The- big cattle ranches are gradually disappearing, as they have disappeared in New South Wales before the sheep, and as the sheep in turn are being displaced bv wheat. AUSTRALIA'S CHANCE. As the United States, fails to be the big meat-producing country of the world. Australia's . chance will come. It is not always realised that this country is about the same size as the United States, and that there are thousands of miles of unused country in the north and north-west which will carry vast herds of stock. There is more than a suspicion that some of the stories one hears 'of arid and useless wastes are inspired by wise men who know the value of such "wastes" very well, and are anxious .to put off the day when others will know of it/ also. As this cattle industry develops it is not impossible that Darwin will become one of the big meat-exporting cities of tlis world. Before that day comes, however, it would be well for graziers in this country to have markets ready, and one of the avenues for the disposal of meat should be the countries of Europe wherte meat is now a luxury to all but pei-sons in fair circumstances. The friendly feeling between the British and French nations should facilitate the opening-up of a market in France'. A French merchant in Sydney who has just returned from a trip to Europe gives his opinion as to the prospects of Australian frozen meat finding a market in France. "While I was in the north of France," he said, "there was much misery amongst the poorer people on account of the scarcity and dearness of food. The fishing season on the coast of Brittany had been very bad, so that this great source of food supply for the northern peasants had almost failed. The result was to make foo\l dear all over France, because supplies had to be sent from the south, to the north, and that made a shortage all round. "Meat in Paris was too dear for poor people, to buy except on, perhaps, one day inf the week. A fillet steak cost about Js to Is 3d a pound. I spoke to many people about the meat which Australia sends to London and sells there jfor about 4d a pound, but they were not interested. I found that there was a peculiar prejudice against Australian meat; and do you know why? People told me that the meat which Australia sent to the British troops in South Africa, was bad, and if ' . Australians did not send good meat to their own people they certainly could not be expected to send good meat to strangers i "I don't know if it is true that bad meat was sent to South Africa, but I was astonished to .find that quite a •number of my friends that it had. I said to them that: perhaps they were confounding the Australian meat with the Chicago meat, but they said : 'No, we are sure the Australian meat is bad I' AN OLD PREJUDICE. "Of course I can't say how far that prejudice goes, but it pertainly exists, and will have to be overcome before many people -will use it. Then, of course, the opposition of the farming class in France will have to be overcome before tlie importation of Australian meat will be allowed on reasonable terms, but I am' sure that . if the poor people knew, how good :the meat is they would insist on having' it, and the politicians would have' to be, very clever to prevent its coming into the country '. ADVERTISEMENT WANTED. "Australian meat wants plenty of advertising and the best advertisement would' be. a practical onei I tlu'nk it would pay well -in the end if a number of '-'the riph graziers of Australia, who depend largely on the export meat trade for the prosperity of their business, chibbed together and started' an 'Australian Restaurant' in the principal cities of France. The meat supplied would come from .Australia, the wine would be Australian, and perhaps the fruit and 'vegetables also. . The price of a dinner would, of course, have to be exceedingly low — low enough to allow almost anybody to pay it — and it would be .necessary to have 'the best of cooks. You know what French cooks can do; you have heard the stories of the. kid glove made into consomme, and a carrot served up as fried trout — well, a clever French chef would serve you up Australian mutton so that you would think it turkey. ■ '. ' 'RESTAURANTS AUSTR ALIENS." "Australian restaurants conducted properly would become wonderfully successful ; they might even become the rage in Paris. The Parisians love novelty, and, with a little judicious 'booming' — I think" that is the word — you would have the smartest writers" and caricaturists featuring them in the papers, and then their 'fortunes Avould be made. "I do not say that the restaurants would be profitable, on the sense that they would pay interest on capital invested, but they would create so much interest amongst" people of all classes that the Government would be forced to consider the question of allowing or even encouraging the importation of Australian meat and other food products."