210 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



It is absolutely necessary tliat those wlio supply- retailers should be 

 in a position to give a steady, constant supply of meat at a uniform 

 and moderate value. The aim should be, therefore, not high prices, 

 but a large trade at moderate values and low cost. A large volume 

 of business will enable ship owners to carry meat at reduced freight, 

 will cause lower insurance and cold stonige charges, and will enable 

 salesmen to reduce their rates. 



Conditions to he ohscrved at the other end. 



When we come to the conditions to be observed at the other end, 

 in order to ensure success, we have a much more difficult problem to 

 solve, especially when the matter is considered from this side. There 

 seems to be very little doubt that there is among Home buyers that 

 which is so much lacking among sellers — viz., organisation and com- 

 bination. It will be generally conceded that Australian meat goes 

 into too many hands, there are too man}^ consignees, many of them the 

 reverse of strong. Not infrequently very full advances have been made 

 on meat received in England, and consignees do not care to increase 

 the risk by incurring storage expense, which is extremely high, being 

 od. per lb. a month, as against ^d. in the Colony; consequently the meat 

 is put on the market irrespective of the state of supplies. More con- 

 centration and combination are wanted. As things are at present con- 

 ducted the competition in the disposal of meat is among sellers instead 

 of among buyers. It seems to be fully admitted by those who ought to 

 know that Australian meat does not get fair play ; and it is evident 

 when Home-grown meat is at 6hd. to 7d., and good frozen mutton at a 

 great deal less than half that, there is a screw loose somewhere. Here 

 are some quotations with regard to the sale of Australian meat on the 

 Home market : — ^' At Home our meat gets no recognition, and producers 

 get no benefit." " The Smithfield salesmen and butchers get all the 

 profit. These men naturally do not wish to expand a trade that is 

 capable of making their fortune within its present small and compact 

 limit." ^^ Four million of fi"Ozen carcases may reach London in one 

 year, and yet but little frozen mutton be found on the retail market. 

 These frozen carcases disappear among the Smithfield butchers and 

 cannot be ti*aced." " The butchers make fortunes, the producers 

 nothing. There is no doubt about the sheep exporter being bled by 

 the London retailers, and still the iSmithfiold ring dictates prices." 

 '' The rise and fall of frozen meat here is simply a matter of bulls and 

 bears." 



There is no open sale, we are told, and most of the business is done 

 in '''whispers." A great deal of the meat passes at times through 

 three or four different hands before it reaches the consumer. 



Our meat is, for the most part, not sold on its merits. It is stated 

 by shrewd men, who have carefully looked into the matter, and their 

 statements are fully borne out by the sworn evidence of butchers, 

 given before the Royal Commission on Meat Marking, that quantities 

 of Australian frozen meat are sold as Welsh and even as English 

 mutton, Avhile a good deal more is sold as New Zealand, and the 

 inferior only goes befoi'e the British consumer as Australian. It is 

 evident this course of procedure must exactly suit the Home purveyor, 

 for the lower the wholesale price fur Australian mutton the more 



