Wellington Independent TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3212, 30 May 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1871.

"We are glad that the subject of meat preserving is at last receiving some attention in this province. We say at last, for in other parts of New Zealand and throughout the Australian colonies it has become already a great settled industry. That the flocks and herds have outgrown the natural demand for their consumption is proved at once by the depressed state of the live stock market, and by the existence of boiling down establishments. A boiling down establishment we have an instinctive aversion to. We would not depreciate the enterprise that started them, nor disparage their usefulness in helping, by the creation of an export of tallow, to render the stock market more elastic in its operations, but when we think of the waste that is involved in boiling down, and of the millions of our fellowmen who would gladly eat what is thus destroyed, we cannot but feel that a better way of turning to account our flocks and herds is imperatively demanded in the interests of economy, and by the instincts of our common humanity. Meat preserving, therefore, is now more favored throughout the colonies, and it is well that it should be so. Indeed, the greatest economy is shown in establishments combining boiliug down with meat preserving. No part of the animal is thereby lost. There is no province in New Zealand in which such establishments have a better chance. . Confessedly, nowhere can cattle and sheep find so fattening pasturage. If this industry were but fairly established, we should see better breeds introduced among us, for whenever we have, by an export trade, raised the price of fat stock, fresh inducements will be provided for investing capital in their production, and capitalists will naturally look, in their selection of stock, to the two products — wool and flesh — then marketable articles, who now select with reference to the former alone. Meat preserving will become of equal importance with the production of wool. For this purpose, says a contemporary, the Southdown, or a cross between the Southdown and Leicester, breed of sheep will be found most profitable. Such sheep, fed on lucerne or artificial grasses, will produce an enormous amount of fine mutton. The lambs of this cross are ready at four months, the sheep at twelve or fourteen months — from thirty to forty pounds a quarter : being no unusual weight for the latter. Thus tillage and pastoral occupations may go together ; and settlers find a new source of profit. Instead of being obliged to transport the produce from the farms in carts and railway trucks, they may concentrate it in sheep, and send it in as prime mutton. The feeding of sheep would prove a source of great profit. As the price of sheep rose upon the preservers, the investment of capital in this direction would keep it down, and a new class of men would be putting money into their pockets by producing mutton on artificial food at Id orl^dper Ib. A collateral advantage would be gained by the land also. There would be return to the land. The sheep wouid be fed upon it, and would manure it, and so maintain its fertility. Then we must contemplate the effect of such an establishment on the labor market. The sum expended in labor annually would amount, for each establishment, to a sum of at least £17.000, and here there is no occasion to enlarge ; everybody can understand what so large an outlay means. As an article of demand, we have data before us which places that view of the question in an equally hopeful light. A Leeds newspaper, of recent date, furnishes the report of a meeting of the " Board of Guardians," at which the question of Australian preserved meats, as a branch of domestic economy, was discussed. The report proceeds to say that the clerk to the Board stated that the merchants in London who had boon supplying them with Australian mutton bad been written to, and a reply had been received to this effect : — " The French and Germans buy all the mutton

before it arrives at 6-Ad or 7d, with all faults, so that it would not answer now to supply you, faults allowed for. We have no bills of lading of any floating unsold, or we would try to oblige you ;" whereupon the following colloquy ensued : — " Mr Clarke : That letter will dispose of the motion itself. Mr Lampen : Dispose of the motion. We shall have to buy carcases as before. Mr Nettleton was desirous of knowing what amount it would save to the ratepayers during the half-year by using the Australian mutton. The saving, he understood, would be about one-half. The chairman said he had got a return from the master of the Industrial Schools, i according to which there were consumed by the children during the quarter ending September, 1870, 32121bs of carcass mutton, at 7id per lb on the average, and amounting to £00 IGs. During the quarter ending September, 1870 — the quarter they commenced using the Australian mutton — there were consumed by the children 12031bs Australian mutton, at s£d per lb, giving a total cost of £-'30 19s G^d, and showing a difference on the side of economy of £35 10s 7-Jd. The master of a workhouse in a return, stated that in the quarter ended December, 1870, the total cost of the amount consumed was £389 Is lOd ; during the corresponding quarter of the precediug year, when there was fresh meat, the cost of the amount 1 consumed was £478 ]Cs Bd, showing a difference of cost in favor of the mutton of £89 41s lOd. The fresh mutton obtained in Leeds appeared to cost on the average 7fd per lb. , and it was generally supposed that the waste from the roasting or cooking otherwise, and the bone in the mutton, would add to at least one third of the cost, which would make the i total something like lOd per lb. at any 1 rate. Now they were paying for this ' Australian mutton, already cooked and ! without any bone whatever, and as good and nutritious as our own mutton — something like G£d per lb., and that, he thought, included the carriage. Mr D. Lupton : It is nearly forty-five per cent. A leg of mutton that weighs 12 lb., will only give 7 lb. of meat. The chairman said that he had rather understated than overrated the advantages. The crmbined saving in the workhouse and the industrial schools had been £125. Mr Alderman Addyman said there was a great difference between cooked meat without bone, and meat uncooked with bone, irrespective of the price paid in purchasing. Mr D. Lupton said said it seemed to him there was such a saving that they ought to get a further supply of Australian mutton. It was no argument to say that they could not get it to day. The Chairman : It may be here next week ; and it seemed to him desirable to have a supply, as it was wholesome and nutritious food — every guardian would bear him out in saying that. They ought to pass an order that a supply of Australian mutton be obtained as soon as they could, and he begged to move accorddingly. The motion was agreed to." In further illustration of this point we may state that advices have been received of the sale in one line, in the London market, for the Continent of Europe, of 1000 tons of Australian preserved meats, afc B|d per lb., thus realising a profit of nearly £30,000 on the one transaction over and above what had been considered a fair marketable price. Surely with these facts and figures before them, our stock owners ought to be encouraged to go on. The able letter in our columns yesterday strikingly corroborates our previous remarks on the folly of attempting two establishments on the East Coast ; and unless we hqar some counter arguments advanced, well supported by calculations on behalf of those who advocate the Upper Hutt as the proper site, we must assume that they have allowed judgment to go against them by default. The whole weight of testimony and experience goes to prove that one establishment at Featherston is better for those more immediately interested, is more likely to prove commercially successful, and therefore more calculated to advance the public interest by its beneficial action in attracting capital for investment and circulating money in the employment of labor. We trust to hear of the two companies amalgamating, and erecting suitable works at Featherston ; or if this is not agreed on, we hope to hear better arguments for the Hutt site than have yet been mooted.