The Frozen Meat Trade

Southland Times, Issue 19471, 26 November 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Frozen Meat Trade

m A NEW ZEAL4NDEIVS IMPRESSIONS. Mr C. Cook, of Lyttelton, who has just returned from a holiday visit to the United Kingdom, gave a representative of the Lyttelton Times the result of his observations in the Old Country on the meat trade, in which he is interested. He said that on a previous "\iisit, 12 years ago, he found a strong prejudice against frozen meat. Now,' not only h a s this disappeared, but New Zealand meat, Canterbury lamb, .especially, is highly esteemed, and is to bo found in. all parts of the United KingdomA proof of its popularity which specially struck Mr Cook was the finding tho words " Canterburylamb " on the menu of a Masonic banquet at which he was a gue9t. Indeed, Canterbury lamb seemed so much in evidence everywher? that Mr Cook has some doubts as to its genuineness in some instances. He found tne real article sold in Sraithfield market and eagerly competed for by the butchers, but he also knew that laxfe© (quantities of Argentine mutton and lamb were being disposed of. He remarks |hat it is l:<y no ■fltedns diflicult to shift a tag or label from one carcase to another, and is of opinion that it would be a good thing if the real N.Z. mutton aud !nmb could be branded, but without the use of chemicals, on. say, leg, loin and shoulder. New Zealand lamb is, he says, most in demand in May and June, before the English, Scotch lamb comes on the! market. In proof of the superior popularity of our "prod ut't, he states that Canterbury lamb was bringing B^d per lt> for legs, .while Highland lamb was realising only 7*d. While Canterbury keeps, up the quality of its lamb, there iB, he thinks, no need to fear competition. ; New Zealand beef, Mr Cook states, is; very far from showing the popularity of New Zealand muttoru It does not, he ; says, seem to " thaw out " well, and is,, therefore, far inferior to ' the American, chilled beef, v which he declares is* excellent. Moreover, New Zealand beef has to compete with Hk- '■' c cattle sent in large numbers from the United States. Mr Cook saw 2000 head of American cattle landed one day at Birkenhead. " He was much impressed with the lameness of the animals, and tho excellent condition in which they were lahdod. The utmost care, he saysi iflust have been taken to preserve tßem from injury on the voyage^ c He visited the Birk«nhead atattolrs, j( j

where some cattle which had Juit crossed j the Atlantic were killed and dressed. The I condition of the carcases, he declares, was admirable. The arrangements at the abattoirs at Birkenhead, which nre on a very large scale, did not striko hun aB being in 'advance of those in the modem slaughtering establishments in this colony. Indeed, so far as small things might bo compared with great, he thought that the Lyttelton abattoirs are equally up-to-date.