FROZEN MUTTON IN ENGLAND. An Interview With Mr Fred. Nelson. (Lyttelton Times.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2151, 22 April 1886, Page 4

FROZEN MUTTON IN ENGLAND. An Interview With Mr Fred. Nelson. (Lyttelton Times.)

Mu Frkdkuiuk Nki.son, a member of the well-known firm which is so largely interested in tho New Zetland trido in fm/.en in.itton, is at the present niomont in Chrwtchurch on his way home to England again, after .1 M-it to the colony. Knowing bun to be more fully conversant with the details "f the whole buMiic-s than, perhaps, any other person, we thought it an opportunity t<»<> good to bo 10-,t to obUin . Home information from him on the mibj"ct. The following ii <vn account of a cmveisation u rujircionUtive of tlii * journal had with Mr NeNon yesterday morning. Tlie general features of tho frozen mutton trade *re, of course, already pretty fully known to the public, but Mr Nel-on speaks in the position of on" a little behind tho scenes, as it were, and his utterances doiivo from that additional value. THE NEEDS OF THE TRADE. . "Tho principal want of the trade," says Mr Nelson, in answer to my question, "is more organisation in tho selling and distri- • buting of the meat in London. That has always been a stumbling block, and, as you are aware, i»rhaps, Mr John Roberts, of Dunedin, tried to remove it ; he went Home and attempted to organise an association, or company, to manage the business, but ' the scheme did not succeed. It is not so much the occasional glut in the market that damages the trade ; it is this divided agency. The mutton is consigned to so many different people that they are all cutting each other's throats. Now that mutton is fetching a good price, people don't think so much about the matter ; but let it fall to 4id, and buyers will take advantage of the competition, and (hen undoubtedly it will be sold under its real value. I have no peculiar theories to advance regarding the trade, but I certainly think that the meat should all be consigned to one agent. The question is, Who should that agent be? We ourselves have made a bid for the position, and have spent £20,000 in preparing storage chambers, &c, for the mutton. The tiade itself is right enough — at least I am perfectly satisfied with it as a profitable business ; it only means this: that this diwded agency causes the mutton to be sold under its real value. The Americans began in exactly the same way, consigning their meat to g? different agents ; but in 1874 or 1875, when 1 —if I remember right— they firnt began sending it in quantity, they found it would not do. Since that time it has all been thrown into one man's hands. John Bell and Sons, I think, is the name of the firm that receives their meat." DISTRIBUTION IN ENGLAND. Would it be possible to get the meat into the provinces better ? "There is a curious 'Ideal have met with among people out here, that, because the meat goes to Xondon, it remains there. As a matter of fact, fully two-thirds of the Nivr Zealand frozen mutton that comes into England goes to tho provinces. London must, of course, always be the head centra of the trade ; but every big town like Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and so on, has two or three shops where it is regujarly sold. People talk about sending their frozen mutton to Liverpool direct, but forget one or two things. The population iof London ia nearly five millions, compared to the three quarters of a million in -Liverpool ; London is the best distributing centre possible ; and, finally, their ships and their produce must como there, so that the mutton had better come as well. But, refening again to the distribution : We do j distribute it throughout the whole of the United Kingdom— we have sent it to the Islo of Man and to the Channel IslandsNo ; not to Ireland, except a few solitary instances ; meat is too cheap there for them to require ours very much— they send it to England themselves. But the object '•we have in view is to distribute the meat in the cheapest way possible, and the more business we get the cheaper we shall be able to do it. We have arranged with a ■team boat company, which formerly ran a passenger line from London up to the east coast of England, and whese trade failed them, to take meat up from London -to Middlesborongh— a certain amount every week. They have turned their saloon into a refrigerating chamber, and by sending it to Middlesborough we tap tho centre of the great coal and iron districts. Then, besides this, we are contemplating a refrigerating hulk at Plymouth, to act as a meat store for the Western district. There will be nothing very peculiar about her construction. She will be very like tho one in Wellington harbour, and will leceive the frozen mutton from the steamers as they call in there on the way to London, and keep in till wanted. Further than this, if business grows, we propose to have insulated vans, iwhich we shall run down to Birmingham and the other preat provincial towns once or twice a week ; so you see there is very little moie that can be done as far as our share in distributing the meat is concerned. "canterbury" mutton, new Zealand's share in the business. I then asked Mr Nelson if there were any faults to remedy <>n this side of the water ? He could tell of none, but gave mo a curious little piece of philological information. " The packing, as far as my opinion goes, cannot be improved on ; and there is no question about the quality ; as long as New Zealand people send the same sort as they send now " Canterbury " mutton will continue to keep its name. All good New Zealand mutton is known in the trade as ' Canterbury mutton '—not, as most likely the inhabitants of the province fondly imagine, because theirs is so superior to any other mutton that comes from New Zealand (ono good wether is about an good as another, whatever part of the island he comes from), but because it was in the market first, and all the best that comes retains the name ' Can tei bury.' Thero is a parallel instance in ' Botany ' wool. Good merino wool, it does not matter from whence it comes, is known as 'Botany,' simply because the New South Wales people were the first to send Home * wool of that paiticular description. But that is by tho Way. The butchering is done to perfection here, as far as I can judge, and I know of no defects in the shipping arrangement ; in fact, once the mutton is properly frozen and put on board, it can hardly come to grief unless through great negligence during the voyage. About the unloading I do not care to say much. Our firm is too intimately concerned, and it is needless to draw comparisons. We put ours into insulated lighters in the docks, and it is taken up the river to the storage chambers. Freight is still high ; but I do not see how we can alter tint as long as the meat is sent Home in extravagantly well-appointed passenger vessels." PROSPECTS OK THE TRADE. With regard to the stability of the trade, and so on, Mr Nelson? "To my mind there is no doubt that the average price of meat throughout the year will givo a good retuin. The mistake most frequently made by consignees is that they send their meat Home all in one shipment, instead of dividing it among three or four different, ships at different times of the year. That is what I always advise. There i* less risk of making a bad 8 hot. As to harm being done to the mutton by being M>ld as prime Scotch — that's nothing. As long as it is sold it does not matter much under what name it goes. Somo of these days it will be sold simply as meat, and nobody will .dream of enquiring where it comes from. T?Y>r years there was a prejudice against American beef ; now no one knows whether they are eating an English or a Chicago beast. The prejudice question in this case I always looked upon as a convenient resort and shelter for housekeepers who wanted an excuse for not offending their butcher ; that is no great drawback." THE WILY SIIDDLEMKN : HIS MISTAKEN • VIEWS. ♦•The poor middleman, too, has had a hard time of it. Of course _ your middlemen want selecting in this as in other thirgs, but the middleman- is evidently a necessity ; you can't do away with him. If if is not so, why has he existed ever since butchering was established ? But I cannot deny that some of the middlemen hare been making hay while the sun shone. The fact is many of them have no faith in tho business—they think it musst collapse ; that it can't go on. They can't understand how we can send mutton 12,000 to 13,000 miles, and sell it at from 4d lo Od. So they tried to reap a benefit while the thing did last." SUPPLYING THE CONTINENT. Has the question of a continental market ever been discussed in England, Mr Nelson? I have never seen it mentioned-. •' Yes, we have had that in vicwl Indeed, wo entered into negotiations with Antwerp, and there is every possibility that we may be able t<» do something there. Paris, too, We 'could manage very easily, as it would be'no troublo to send meat all the way up the Seine in email boats. But it is not likely that- the French would stand it. The Government would put a prohibitive duty on frozen meat at once. We have gone so

far as to talk the matter over with a man in Paris ; but to set the xclienie afoot would cost a good deal of money, which would be all thrown away unless the trade were allowed t«> continue. The only thiiiß that stops us is the almost absolute certainty of this prohibitive duty.