India as a New Zealand Market.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5189, 20 December 1884, Page 3

India as a New Zealand Market.

♦ PEOZEN MEAT AND WOOLLEN GOODS. p3pECX4-L TO THE " StAB."J WELLINGTON, Dec. 20. it informed you several days ago that the Government had received a most important and interesting memorandum from the Government of Bombay, in answer to enquiries from the Government of New Zealand a3 to the prospect of New Zealand frozen mutton and woollen fabrics finding a market in India. The Government of Bombay have apparently gone to some trouble in the matter, and the papers just, received embrace replies from the Municipal Commissioner for the City of Bombay Trades Association. The memorandum is too lengthy to deal -with as a. whole, but I give you a minute by Sir James Fergusson, Governor of Bombay, and formerly Governor of- New Zealand, which very fairly sums up the ioformation contained in the memo. Sir James says : — It will appear by these papers that the success of the importation of frozen meat and. woollen fabrics to Bombay can only be decided by experiment. The sales -of the former would be chiefly confined to Europeans and those of the richer class. As a rule the meat supplied in the market is poor compared to Autralian and New Zealand meat ; but very good meat can be obtained by the larger consumers, and generally that supplied to Government House is little if at all inferior. A great many Europeans would pay a somewhat higher price for a really good article, Bay Gd to 7d per lb, instead of 3d to 4d. Ice can be procured to any extent from the Ice Manufacturing Company, and arrangements could be made for storing meat a3 in London. There are no towns in the Bombay Presidency with so large a European population as would make it worth while to send foreign meat there, except Poonah. There it is offered by the railway, and qudfecd at ,£l4 10s per ton. The distance to Poonah is- 188 miles. The Native meat is somewhat cheaper in Poonah than in Bombay. The Commissariat, who are lai-ge consumers, would certainly not buy meat at 4d or 5a when they can produce or buy it at 2d to 3d. A large portion of their supply comes from Government farm 3. The New Zealand ■woollen goods are not at present known, neither is their price stated. I know them to be light in texture, warm, and durable, and I feel sure they would be admired. Whether they could be taken up by wholesale importers in competition with established British stuffs is a difficult question of trade, in which comparative price would be a considerable factor. My impression is that while an experimental shipment is the only reliable plan, no opportunity so favourable can be obtained as that which would be given by the Bombay International Exhibition, at present proposed to be opened in December, 188 G. «>There might then be a refreshment room opened at which Colonial meat, soup, &c, might be eaten, and Colonial meat of a similar .kind, be procurable on demand. Woollen

j goods might aloO be procurable a3 woll as ' exhibited. Calcutta has a much larger European population than Bombay, and • the market for Colonial meat ought, therefore, to be larger proportionally. Tho natives, as a rule, insist on having thuiv j meat killed on caste principles, and pruh»* iit fresh killed. Some of the Parsees would eat imported meat. Knowing the great interest felt on the , subject in Canterbury, I make no apology for burdening your columns to this extent. I In a private letter to Sir Julius Yogel, | Sir James Ferguaaon says that in his i i opinion woollen goods, if light, warm and j j cheap, would find a batter miirie in India j ! than frozen meat, as he considei s that tho : j low price that only could be obtained f ..«? I the latter would prove a bar to the sucooks j of importations to India ; and he urges j that these woollen goodd should be pushed j at the Bombay Exhibition oi 1886. He ' adds that Australian wines have already found a profitable market in Bombay. !