THE N.Z. MEAT TRADE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6704, 18 November 1889, Page 4

THE N.Z. MEAT TRADE.

The Melbourne Argus of Nov. 1, under the heading of "Notes and Comments/' writes a3 follows : — lb is very well for Australia that New Zealand is holding an Exhibition. Ifc will be an excuse for Australians to go over and learn something For New Zealand has mastered many problems which have hitherto puzzled and bewildered Australia, or driven her, through some of her statesmen, to acts which have sometimes received hard names. It is better to go across and learn tlian 1 stay at home and steal ; and really New Zealand is able to teach us something more than the way to line butter-boxeß. T,he great Australasian work she has mastered is the killing, chilling, shipping and selling of mutton and beef. Twelve years ago she awoke from a dream of fictitious prosperity. Her borrowing powers were exhausted ; her 1 producing powers had overtaken and over--1 past her consuming capacity. Her agricultnral lands, which had been run up to fabulous values, came tumbling into tho 1 market by thousands and hundreds of 1 thousands of acres ; but, luckily perhaps, there were no purchasers. The farmers and the squatters were compelled to hold on, ' and to find somehow a market for their ' products, and means of conveyance and distribution. It would be a long story to tell now how | men of genius pioneered and men of energy persevered; how all along the " coast line, at every Bmall centra and shipping port, mem set themselves to experiment towards the solution of thia great * problem. Practically wo passed it in ? Australia ; absolutely they have solved it L in New Zealand. : While wo have been driving our cattle over hundreds of miles of desert country, or trucking them living from the heart of Australia to the coast, or shipping them from any favoured locality to the great metropolitan markets, New Zealand has ' established killing and chilling works at " eight centres, and is shipping from them her mutton and beef to all the markets of Europe. " But in a small way, of course," aayß out Australian, expert. " Everything is Bmall, Lilliputian indeed, in New Zealand; We cannot take them as an example. You may find Gome village in Victoria solving a sanitary problem which puzzles all the authori- ' ties of the city, but you are not, therefore, to J say that a similar scheme might be applied 1 to the city. Beally we are metropolitan here, and New Zealand affords us but the . village example-" of this sort ifl oommon enough * in Australia— common as foolish and falne. i New Zealand has done more than solve tbc % problem which conioundß the city corpotation, the stock and station agents, the 3 dealeraand butchers- of Melbourne, and » the meat producers of Australia. She has » lm wStom»entoradaptproceweßand bi to-cseWttad©** a large* W^gr .«!

bourne. The statement seems rash, but let authentic and official figures speak. The writer here quoteß statistics from the Lyttelton Times. He continues:-— Seven, hundred aud affiveuty-fcrac thousand i eight hundred and sixty-one carcases of mutton will be senb from New Zealand porta to England in six months. How does j it compare with the numbers drained from all partsof Australia for the supply of Melbourne ? The number of fat sheep yarded j for ova city supply on the three market days juat passed have been 23,000, 25,000, and 22,000. If we take the greatest : of these numbers and multiply it by twenty- j biz (half the weeks of the year), wo get a ; total of only 650,000, or very considerably i less than the New Zealand Burpluß. It is somewhat startling this — ft discovery which should shock us into action. It implies much more than the successful killing, chilling, exporting, distributing of the meat products of the country. It shows that New Zealand supplies all her own wants, and after that has more than enough mutton to spare than the average supply of Melbourne. All our broad acreß will not serve for our own local spits and pots. Yet little New Zealand could feed herself and Victoria too. There is something for our squatters and our farmers to learn here. It was no use hobbling about a stock tax in New Zealand. The meat producer had to find for himself a market and a means to reach it, aud having found it, to increase his supplies to satisfy it. Nor did he find hia cattle wild or his pastures ready prepared. Over all the great fattening areas he had to sow English grasses, irequently to go into English and scientific methods of farming. He began from that foundation. The farmer was the first to begin. He raised stock suitable for the world's markets, and when he had satisfied local demands he appealed to the manufacturers, the merchants, the shipowners, " Help me to dispose of my surpluses." Each separate class responded loyally, liberally, energetically. Abattoirs and chilling factories were established wherever stock were raised. Steamship Conipßiiiea were formed, and ship3 provided scarcely inferior to those of the great ocean lines of England which trade with us. The leaders in the business went Home to place their commodities on the market. Andao, every man filling his own niche and i forging his own link, the process was completed from the pasture to tho London butcher's ehop, and New Zealand meat is as firmly established in English markets as American "hog products" or Australian wool.