134 FROZEN MUTTON TRADE OF NEW SOUTH WALES. [Sept. 1895. 



Operation, a council would be formed consisting of delegates 

 selected from their own number by the members of the several 

 boards of advice. The business of the boards, so far as it had 

 an inter-colonial bearing, would come before the council for 

 confirmation, and the decision of the latter body would be 

 binding on the boards and on the companies they represented. 



As regards the control of the trade in London and other con- 

 suming centres, this would be effected by the association of 

 the agents of the several companies in the appointment of a 

 committee with power to decide what quantity of the various 

 kinds and grades of Australian meat should be put on the 

 markets weekly. This committee would also fix weekly the 

 minimum prices at which the meat should be sold during the 

 week, and they would advise the boards of advice and the inter- 

 colonial council upon all points connected with the state and 

 general prospects of the trade. These are the principal features 

 of the scheme put forward by the authority mentioned above. 

 It will be seen that it is based to a large extent on the 

 co-operative system of distribution and sale which has operated 

 so successfully in the Danish butter trade, but experience only 

 can show w^hether its application to a large industry already 

 established, under conditions entirely different in many respects 

 from those prevailing in Denmark, is likely to be attended 

 with the same degree of success. One of the main objects of 

 the Australian scheme is to bring about an improvement in the 

 price of frozen meat by curtailing the shipments, but although 

 the supplies from the Antipodes may be ' controlled by the 

 adoption of the measures • described, there is always the possi- 

 bility of increased consignments from other directions. In spite 

 of this risk, it is, however, maintained that there are so many 

 other ways in which co-operation would be of great benefit to 

 colonial stock owners, that the doubt which exists with respect 

 to the results of a combined and systematic curtailment of ship- 

 ments of Australian meat ought not to prevent the adoption of 

 co-operative principles. Indeed, the fact that this doubt exists 

 is used as an argument to demonstrate the folly of meat com- 

 panies, not to speak of stock owners, attempting single-handed 

 to put the export trade on a satisfactory footing, or imagining 

 that an improvement will be effected until this is done. 



Discussing the prospects of an extension of the frozen meat 

 trade to the continent of Europe, Mr. Bruce says, " While 

 it is a matter of the highest importance to obtain a good 

 footing on the continent of Europe, and every endeavour 

 should be made to open up markets there for our meat and 

 other produce, we ought not to overlook the necessity for 

 rigorous and combined work in the way of extending the 

 business in Great Britain and Ireland, for not only would the 

 benefit be more immediate, so far as regards the meat, than 

 what may be expected from any endeavour on the Continent, 

 but it is to be borne in mind that the frozen meat trade carries 

 with it the trade in butter, cheese, fruit, game, fish, and poultry. 



