FROZEN MEAT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12927, 19 March 1906, Page 3

FROZEN MEAT.

REASONS FOR THE SLUMP. METHODS MUST CHANGE. (•' New Zealand Times.") it is scarcely twelve mouths since the flock-owners and freezing companies of New Zealand recovered from the last seriuus disorganisation of their business, and already another disorder due to the same primary cause has hit several of the companies rather badly. Over-eagerness to avail themselves of good prices induced New Zealand growers only a few years ago to tcp off and ship away thousands of ewe lambs that would ordinarily have been kept for breeding purposes. As a result, the flocks of New Zealand were, in the course of one or two seasons, seriously depleted, falling to a level far below requirements to keep the export trade going on the usual scale. A little design and a great deal of circumstance conduced to remedy this evil, and now the flocks have quite recovered. But almost before this could be said, there were already signs of difficulty in another direction. At its last annual meeting a year ago the Christchurch Meat Company complained of the results of the "season then, ciirrent owing to competition with Australia and Argentine. Australia had been practically shut out of the Home market for some' years, as a result of the ravages of drought, on the flocks. But with the recovering powers for which the Commonwealth is 'remarkable, she appeared again on the market with surprising promptitude almost as soon as the 'drought had disappeared. -Argentine, on the other! hand, lia<l been steadily increasing her output from year to year. These two circumstances have combined to seriously affect New Zealand's produce for two j seasons past.

The proportion of the" export" "from each of the competing countries for 1904 and 1905 wfcre as follows (carcases being the unit, in each case) Australia. Mutton. Lamb. 1904 121.799 528.524 1905 ... ... ... 461,902 906,536 Increase ... ... 540,103 578,012 Total Increase 918,115 River Plate. 1904 ... 2,730.560 207,141 1905 ... ! 3,030,130 173,080 Increase - 299,570 Dec. 34,061: ... Total Increase . 265,509 ' ; - New Zealand. 1904 ... 1.984,719 1.952,901 1905 ... 1,751,229 1,953,337 Dec. ... 233,490 Inc. 436 Total decrease - • 233,054' Putting the position in; another light, the net increase of mutton imported into the United Kingdom last year was 406,183 carcases, which made made up as follows: Mutton. Carcases PerIncrease. centage- : Australia ... 340,103 279.23 River Plate ... 299,570 10.97 Decrease. New Zealand 233,490 11.76 Lamb.

The years imports of lamb showed a net increase of 544;387 carcases. This was made up as follows: C arcases PerIncrease. centage. Australia. ... 578,012 175.94 | New Zealand v 436 . .02 Decrease. t River Plate ... 34,061 16.44 With the reminder that the net increase of mutton and lamb imported into the United Kingdom for 1905 .was 950,570 carcases, these figures show clearly what has been happening. The Christchurch Meat Company is not alone in feeling the encroachment of Australia and Argentine on -its markets. The North Island companies, though, perhaps, not so seriously affected; have been suffering. At the annual meeting of the Gear Meat Company in December, Mr Millward said : "The last few months have been- a source of great anxiety to all engaged in the ;mdat industry; Owing to the reappearance on the London marker, in large quantities, of Australian mutton and lamb, after having been practically absent for several, years during the drought, the prices of this colony's productions of the same description are suffering from the competition.".

A COMPARISON OP PRICES. The following tables, prepared by Mr Gilbert Anderson, late managing director of the Christchurch Meat Company, show the trend of prices for Canterbury mutton and lamb—New Zealand's best:— Mntton. 1904 1905 January 4| 4 9-16 February ._ 4 9-16 4j March 4 9.16 4^ April . 4g 4£ May 4|. . '*™ e 4| 4 5-16 August -...1... 43 September . 4 4 October November ... 4 0 11-16 December 43 3| Lamb. «1 an nary 5 _ ■ February ... 5 6i March... ... ... 5 7.16 6 1-16 April ... 5 3.16 5f Ma J- v, 5 5-16 5| J» ne ... 5 11-16 5 9-16 July ... 5$ 5 9-16 August ... ... ... 5 7.16 5 5.16 September ... 5 11-16 4| Prober 5 7.16 4 5-16 November ... 6 4 1-16 December 6 3-16 4 5-16 CAUSE OF THE DEPRESSION. .Such an experienced judge of the conditions of the meat trade as Mr Anderson has given it as his decided opinion that the farmer aggravated the position to his own ultimate detriment by" insisting upou selling his lambs by weight. The natural outcome of this arrangement is the desire to : hold a lamb too long—until it h;is ceased to be a lamb as far as the consumer is concerned—so as to secure a heavy average weight. The sp'ei-dkl position in which the industry has placed him enabled him to be independent- enouglr to hold until he was willing to sell. The result was that lambs, instead of going from. 361b to 401b, went from 431b to 501b, si}d some so-called- lambs went as high as

431b to 601b. There was almon nn absence of sheep under 561b. and an excess of carcases from 641b to 801b. London orders for prime lamb are for equal cjuaraities of under 561b and from 36ib to 42ih. To till these under the conditions tuiiug late'.v had from 65 So 75 per cent, mora slock had to be taken delivery of by u,<! buyers. The unsuitable weights were ,u lowed to accumulate in London; efforts to hold up the market failed; and disaster followed.

The present disorganisation of the jro litable lamb n:id mutton trade of Canterbury is attributed to the introduction oi crn:.-e No: th Island ewes without the select ivn of :t suitable ram. Reports from London stale thai Canterbury lambs arc now too heavy and ton fat. The old stylo is seldom seen. , Still, the practice of selling by weight must be taken into a»count. Kveil without any influx -A X> rth ! Tsh-iul ewes this practice would :nev;t,ib~.y ! tend to produce over-weights The wi k'r use of Southdown,--rains Inr lamb production would act as corrective to s< me extent. but in any caw Canterbury is n<iw well st scked with ewes, and* there is not likely to be any great in: pur; at ion of coarser she?p for some time to come. Another point that- suggests itself- and Mr Anderson also emphasised it—is the advisability of postponing the lambing for. say. a month. The Condon season for lambs is from Krister to the end of duly, p-iid excessive shipments at other times mean lower prices. Las; year, for instance. the price fell from 6~d in February to in October, a drop of 33 1-3 per cert. Later lambs v. «su!d be .more suitable weights at time of shipment; and would require less finishing off. This is a point for the consideration of North Island breeders as well as South, for the present unsatisfactory state of the market dues r.o; merely concern Canterbury.