AUSTRALIAN PRESERVED MEATS IN ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 1480, 25 November 1872, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN PRESERVED MEATS IN ENGLAND.

♦- The Chief Secretary of Victoria has received by the mail the following commuuication from the agent-general on the subject of Australian, preserved meats : — " I think it well to direct your particular attention at the present moment to the extent to which the consumption of Australian meat is increasing arid tends to increase in this country, to the continuous and searching discussions which its nutritive qualities and its comparative cost with that of English, meat are receiving, and to the evident rapidity with which the prejudice against its use is diminishing, if not disappearing. I enclose, for your information, tho fullest report I hare as yet been able to

obtain of a discussion on the subject which took place at the meeting of the British Association at Brighton, and in connection with that discussion I would farther dircet your attention to the letter of Dr Smith, since published, explaining his real views, which had been somewhat misstated and misunderstood. I also transmit a number of articles and letters which have a2^peared on the topic, principally in the metropolitan press. They form, however, only a very small proportion of the wide-spread discussion which is nonproceeding on the subject throughout the country, but they will serve to show the extent to and tbe rapidity with which prejudice on i'aa subject is being dissipated. Tho great increase in the cost of home-grown meat and in some slight degree perhaps of ooals, may be assigned as the principal causes which have directed public aiiention so intently to the vast reserve of foorl supply wbich the Australasian colonies are capable of affording. "When the question of using Australian meat was first considered in England, the saving proposed to be effected hardly seemed to amount to more than a very few pence in the pound. Now, owing to the increased cost of animal food, due in part to a series of disastrous epidemics among cattle, in part to ths? greater cost of living, of which the influx of gold from Australia and California is at ail events one of tho causes, the argument can be, not withoiifc reason, sustained that English meat when placed on the table costs about three times as much as Australian meat. There are still great difficulties, however, to be overcome in insuring its introduction as an article of general consumption in English households. As compared with other western nations tho English are not merely the largest consumers of animal food, but the people who least avail themselves of tho more elaborate processes of the art of cookery in preparing it for consumption. In countries where, owing to the natural toughness of the meat, the inhabitants are accustomed to subject it to a prolonged high temperature and to assist its flavour with condiments and vegetables, Australian meat should be more certain of a good reception. But the quality of English meat, naturally excellent, owing fo its superior breeding and abundant pasture, and studiously improved in its rearing and preparation for the market, is such that it is generally preferred by tho vast mass of consumers when it is most simply dressed and rather underdone. To a people whose habit of using animal food is such, tho Australian meat is offered, not inferior in quality, but cooked in order to insure its more perfect preservation, at a heat produced in general by chemical means, to which meat is not subjected in any ordinary process. Such is the chief difficulty which now stands in the way of its becoming an article of — I would venture to say — universal consumption. There are countries in which this objection would not so strongly apply ; but at present, and very naturally, the great object of the colonial producers appears to be to establish a solid position in the English market. I venture to suggest that it may be worthy of consideration, in view of the fact that the price of tho English meat has risen so rapidly and is not likely immediately to diminish, and considering that the difference between the prices of the two meats is now so ■much greater than it was when the preparation of Australian beef and mutton for English -consumption was first contemplated, whether at a slight increase in the cost of production it might not bo possible to preserve the meat in a more acceptable form by somo of tho processes hitherto regarded as too costly."