Growth and Bevelopment of the 'Aade in Frozen Mutton. 217 
the number of cases of Australian tins had gone up from 158,000 
to 270,000, in 1884 they dropped to 115,000, and this was 
directly ascribed to the use of frozen in lieu of preserved meat 
in many households in England — 1881' being, as may be remem- 
bered, a year memorable for the actual tripling of the frozen 
supplies of the preceding twelvemonth. After a somewhat 
revived importation of Australian tins in 1885, the receipts 
of 1886 exhibited a remarkable decline — no more than 51,000 
cases coming from Australia, against 209,000 in 1885. This 
extremity of depression did not continue ; but, remembering how 
the fi'ozen trade has risen from 400 to 2,000,000 carcasses since 
1880, the following record of the cases of tins received in London 
from our Australasian colonies possesses a certain interest, and 
tends on the whole to support the theory just suggested. It 
must be remembered that beef, rabbits, and the tlesh of other 
animals are imported in the tinned form besides mutton: — 
Year From Australia ' From New Zealand 
1880 . . . 157,000 , . . 1G,700 
1881 . . . 202,600 . , •. • 8,800 
1882 . , . 232,200 . . . 32,400 
1883 . . . 275,900 . . . 5G,G00 
1884 . . . 115,100 . , . 31,400 
1885 . . . 209,300 . . . 74,200 
1886 . . . 51,400 . . . 17,600 
1887 . . . 174,000 . . . 43,000 
1888 . . . 126,400 . . . 60,000 
New Zealand. 
In a review of the frozen trade it is not, however, expedient 
to concentrate attention on colonies like those of Australia 
proper, whence, after all, so limited and so unexpansive a share 
of our imports come. Turning to the two sources of steadily 
augmenting supplies, New Zealand claims priority as the im- 
porter of the most and the heaviest carcasses. 
New Zealand possesses 15,000,000 sheep, and at the census of 
two years back not quite 600,000 inhabitants, or 5-7 persons to 
each square mile of the 101,000 miles of the territory. The sheep 
sent to London came in 1882 from the Southern Island, but the 
operations were gradually extended to the Northern Island also, 
and have ever since been continued. The increase of sheep re- 
ceived here— from 8,800 carcasses to 940,000— has already been 
noted; but to present the latest picture of the trade and its 
distribution I desire to quote the following summary • of the 
frozen meat shipped from New Zealand from January 1 to 
December 31, 1888, which shows both the ports whence supplies 
From the Weekly Press of February 8, 1889 (Cliristchurch, New Zealand). 
