23

H.—34a

steamer's hold. Each consignee employs a separate contractor to cart the meat to the stores, and the carcases have to be sorted out in the open shed. While this is going on the drays, partially loaded, stand waiting, sometimes for hours, until the unloading of the meat is completed. There is thus great waste of time, unnecessary handling of the meat, and deterioration through exposure. The same thing applies to the landing of butter, though the evil in this case is not so great, as New Zealand butter mostly arrives in the cold months. If proper arrangements were made, he thought the trade in New Zealand foodstuffs could be largely increased. I was shown over the stores by the proprietor, and found them very completely equipped, and constructed on the most approved principles. There are two large De la Verne refrigerating-machines, either of which is of sufficient capacity to do the refrigerating for the whole store. There is thus no risk of goods suffering damage in the event of one of the machines breaking down. All the auxiliary plant is also in duplicate. This store is, in fact, the only one in Glasgow that is on the London Underwriters' " approved " list. The different chambers are well arranged, and the appliances for rapid and efficient handling of meat and other produce are of the best. One of the partners in a firm of meat-dealers who had 2,000 carcases of lamb consigned to them by the s.s. " Oswestry Grange," complained of the irregular running of the steamers. Last year a shipment that should have reached them in March did not arrive till May. Matters are a little better this year. More frequent steamers are required. He could at present (June) take 5,000 New Zealand lambs and could not get them, except in London, where the cost is too great. His customers want heavy sheep, not too fat, but with plenty of flesh. He could take wethers and ewes from New Zealand. Another meat-dealer, who got 1,600 cases of boned beef by the s.s. " Oswestry Grange " in Maj- last, said he does not get all his New Zealand meat direct, as some of it is railed from Manchester or Liverpool. In the course of handling the meat is liable to deterioration, especially in hot weather. New Zealand, he said, has the reputation in Glasgow, as elsewhere, of supplying a good class of meat, according to brand. The boned beef from New Zealand does not, however, command so good a price as the American. This is not owing to any inferiorit}' in the quality, but simply to defective packing. In response to my request for an explanation, he opened a package of " H. & S. Bull Beef," well packed in a box constructed slat-wise, and showed that two different qualities of beef were put up together. There are good and inferior parts in each animal, and these should be packed separately, as is done by the American exporters. He gets 4d. per pound for American "butts," as the good parts are called, and only 3d. over all for NewZealand bull-beef. The New Zealand exporters would make J-d. a pound more if they packed the shoulders and "butts" separately from the other portions of the carcase—say, six "butts" in each box. The reason for this is that there are classes of consumers—in Glasgow those of the East End and those of the West End—the one buying cheap meat and the other the best quality. Under the system of indiscriminate.packing pursued in New Zealand both the East End butchers and those of the West End are compelled to buy meat that they really do not require, and hence they do not give so high a price. He also advised New Zealand beef-exporters to cut off and reject the cartilage-lump from each carcase. The boneless beef is mostly used for mincing, and, as it is minced while frozen, the cartilage is so hard that it cannot be minced. He thought the trade in New Zealand boned beef would greatly increase if the meat were properly packed. Dairy-produce. —A partner in a firm dealing largely in New Zealand produce stated that the Scottish trade in New Zealand butter had not increased so rapidly as he could have wished. For this he blamed solely the manipulation of speculators—large companies in London and Liverpool —who have been offering high prices for the purchase of the whole output of factories. These speculators had now been badly bitten, and, as speculation must now to a large extent cease, it becomes a matter of deep concern to New Zealand dairy factories to choose the most reliable houses on this side to whom they may consign their produce. If they adopted the practice of consigning confidence would be established that would not be disturbed by the absurd competition now prevalent. The quality of New Zealand dairy-produce, he said, is Al, and this is much more recognised in the Midlands and south of England than it is in Scotland. Buyers in the north are looking for an article that will compare with Danish for sweetness and colour. Danish butter is white, whereas New Zealand is rich and highly coloured. Intrinsically, there is not a brand of butter on the market to be compared -with the finest qualities of New Zealand. This he considered to be due to the Government grading and instruction. He had been employed as an expert in the making of butter, and when the Government of Queensland consulted him lately as to the best methods of preparing, grading, and shipping butter, he recommended it to follow the New Zealand system. It would be well to have separate and distinct brands for each country's produce—Danish, New Zealand, Australian, or-Siberian. At present the Danes rule the market, but merchants are selling Danish butter at little or no profit—buying at 106s. per hundredweight and selling at 112s. Some special brands of Argentine butter have of late been entering into competition with New Zealand. In 1904 he visited New Zealand and advocated direct shipments of butter to Glasgow. This was done in one case, and proved successful; but, generally speaking, the direct steamers took too long on the journey, and, before the produce could be landed, changes in the market upset all calculations. The lapse of two or three weeks between the arrival of the steamer at Avonmouth and the delivery of butter in Glasgow may result in heavy loss. In order to do a safe trade bis firm found it better to buy butter in London, and obtain quick and regular delivery, though it costs 2s. per hundredweight more for carriage. His firm, he said, engages in butterblending, and he defended the practice. New Zealand and Australian butter is too stiff to spread in British winter weather. By means of scientific blending they produce a " spreadable " butter in the very depth of winter. If the blending were done in the colonies the butter would be " unspreadable " when it reached Britain. Canadian producers are this year trying the blending