THE FROZEN PRODUCTS TRADE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1802, 24 January 1884, Page 4

THE FROZEN PRODUCTS TRADE.

Tin; Dunedin Evening Star's Home correspondent in.ikts the following comments on Coloihhl agricultural pioducts in the Home markets :— A poition of the chilled cheese which came home by the Done has bemi disposed of by the New Zo.il.uiil Loan and Mercantile Company to Missis Samuel Page and Son, wholesale butler meichants, whose piimipall mtcr\ iewed yesterday. Mr Page says that the cheese, though in firat-rate condition, and the best he has ever seen from ■Vustialasii, is nevetthcle&s a low class aiticle of coarse flavour. It has been selling wholesale at 56s per 1121bs, while Che&hiie (English) cheese, which it most i escmbles, fetches 60s to 64s per 1121bs. The Doiie's consignment will not be vended retail as New Zealand cheese ; in fact Mr Bage thinks that will most likely be brought up by small tradesmen in poor neighbourhoods, who will sell it simply as cheese at a very low figure. Mr Page added that if the price obtained wholesale is considered satisfactory by the Colonial shippers, further consignments will be welcome. Common cheese of strong flavour always commands a market. As lepirds the butter per Doric, Messrs Page report that it at rived in good condition, but the quality was far fiom good ; in fact it has a disagreeably stale flavour with it. None of the butter has been sold, but its value is 10s per cwt. Altogether, the consignment of chilled cheese and butter can seaicely be viewed as a ; success, I shall be veiy sony if. New Zealand gets the name of supplying fifthrate provisions, suitable for only workhouses., gaols, &c. At one time theve seemed a chance of New Zealand mutton ranking in people's minds with prime Scotch or Southdown. Unfortunately, the vendors themselves have put an end to that possibility, and now the frozen meat trade is steadily going down hill. The following extract from a letter f loin a retired colonist to a friend in Dunedin, dated London, November 30th, ISS'}, .uid published in the Witness, will bi* lend with mteiest: — "You, with all iuteiestcd m New Zealand, will be greatly disappointed with tl'.efall in pi ice of New Zetland hozen mutton. Some Southland rather interior carcases were the first to biing about the fall, and it has never since lecovercd : 2.U1 and s{<\ per lb is now the top pi ice. I had a single e.uca&s of excellent mutton at the latter pi ice. I gave away a couple of joints, and the balance supplied my house for neaily a week. A steady rate of 6d per lb m o'uld do, but below that is bare work. In the meantime, it stock has ad\ancud in pi ice with you, it it, likely to come !>ack to tormer i.ites. Yon would heai of the fall in pi ice of New Zealand mutton long bofose .January. I know of no leason why this excellent mutton should not bo worth at least GUI to lo 7d pei lb u holebale. I am determined to induce as many families hcieas I cm to owluv u.ucassub once a fortnight At piesc-it I pay »iy butcher Is to 13d pei lb for mutton no better than v hat I \nu\at 3 id."

Why do I)e>s Simnu.— The mind of a coiieopondent to one of the English scientific papeis appears to be singularly exeiused with lcspect to the abo\e <jnestion. The action of the little workers, and often fieiee belligeients, is said to be remaikable, since certain death results to the unfoitmiate inflicter of the wound. Possibly the act is the outcome of a patnotic feeling, and is undertaken for the good of the «cncial community, who are thus piotected against attacks by the fears of consequences of would-be assailants. The beh.iviour of the bees is exactly paialleled by the leaders of a forlorn hope, who almost invariably sacrifice their lues for the well-being of their comuules who follow. A few daring spnits «ai e shot down, but the breach is successfully stoimcd, the battle is won, aad the toi tress taken. The case is paialhled again by the self-denying devotion of ants, who are known to ! voliiutaiily msli into a shallow ! stujam, their dead bodies forming a kind of causeway, by making use of which the mam body of the advancing army is en- I abJed to pass over the water almost dryshod These wonderful insects are also know n to am\ themselves in passages to the neat bo as to pi event the entry of ram into the inteuor galleiies of the colony. The lives of the self-denying guards are, of couise, forfeited, but thousands of those within, together with a like number of eggs and pup;e, are j preserved, If this behaviour is not duo to mere blind instinct, it evidently evinces a devotedness that should be highly commended. No gazettes are issued as perpetuating the memory of the deceased, nor is it likely that triumphal arches are set up to welcome home the biave and fortunate survivors. "Consider the ant, thou sluggard, and be wise." wrote the Eastern monarch 4000 years since, to w Inch it may be added ' '• consider the same insignificant insects also ye ambitious ones of the earth, w hose god is self, and your highest aim yom own aggiandisement.*' There is no lead pencil, and there has been none for fifty years. There was a tune when a spiracle of lead cut from the bar or sheet sufficed to make marks on white paper or some rougher abrading material. The name of lead pencil came from the old notion that the products of the Cum hot land mines, England, were lead, instead of being plumbago or i graphite, a carbonate ot iron capable of j leaving a lead-coloiued mark. With the original lead pencil or slip, and with the earlier styles of the "lead" pencil made diiecfc fiom the Cumbeiland mine, the wetting of the pencil was a preliminary of writing. 3^ut since it has become a manufacture the lead pencil is adapted, by numbets or letters, to each particular design. There are grades of hardness, fiom the pencil that may be sharpened to a needle point to one that makes a broad maik. Between the two extremes there arc a number of gradations that viover all the conveniences of the lead i encil. These gradations are made by taking the original caibonate, and grinding it and mixing it with a fine quality of clay in differing proportions, regard being had to the use of the pencil. The mixture is thorough, the mass is squeezed through dies tcTfoun and size it, is dried, and incased in its wooden envelope. Mil Moody the American Evangelist, successfully opened his great mission in London on Sunday, November 4th. Four meetings were held, each attended by from 4000 to GOOO persons. Mr Moody says that his three weeks' work hi Ireland was the most pi oductive of his life. Di;schNDbvi\s of Martin Luther's youngest daughter, Margaretha, have been discovered in Denmark. It was long supposed that the reformer's family had become extinct. Thk United States Government Printing Office, which is said to be the largest establishment of its kind in the world, is valued .at £1,062,500. The disbursements last year, (ending June 30), wei-e £359,971. The daily pay of employes is £ll!)0. It i- estimated that from 1789 to 1881, the total outlay for Government printing has been in the neighbourhood of £>r,250,000, Rats and Mice. —lf you wish to destroy them get a packet of Hill's Magic Vermin Kili i'R in packets, Cd, 9J, and Is, to be obtained of all storekeepers, or from T. B. Hill by enc'osing an extia stamp. One Shilling. — Frauds J. Shortts' Populai Art Union.— Ten first-class Oil Paintings by celebrated artists.. 6000 tickets, at Is. The prices are magnificent and costly. Country subscribers sending stamps or otherwise will have tickets by return post. Enclose stamped envelope for reply.— FkAncis J. Shohtt, 140, Queen- street, Auckland. — [Advt.] Lifk in the Bush— Then and Now. — It is generally supposed that in the bush we have to put up with many discomforts and privations in the shape of food Formerly it was so, but now, thanks to T. B. HtJ.L, who has himself dwelt in the bush, if food does consist chiefly of tinned meats his Colonial Sauce gives to them a most delectable flavour, making them as well of the plainest food fnost enjoyable,, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper his Improved Colonial Baking Powdbr makes the very best bread, scones, cakes, and pastry far, superior and more wholesome than yeast or leaven. Sold by all storekeepers who c*n oljUin it torn aojt mwctaat ft AuekU^d,