Ch'owth ayid Development of the Trade in Frozen Mutton, 233 
Year 
Prime Scotch 
Prime English 
Prime New 
Zealand 
Sydney 
River Plate 
1883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
d. 
i 
n 
d. 
9 
8 
n 
d. 
7 
6 
4 
d. 
62 
5.1 
4 
Hi 
d. 
4-9. 
10 
41 
4jL 
Q 7 
V> 
q\ 
^10 
The best English mutton, it will be seen, has fallen very- 
little since 1884, although there was a notable drop between 
that year and 1883. The best New Zealand, which lost less 
between 1883 and 1884, or only Id. per lb., has lost l^d. 
since that date ; while the best English mutton is lower by a 
single farthing per lb. only, or just one sixth of this rate of 
decline. Between 1883 and 1888, while the best of our mutton 
has lost l^d. per lb., the price of New Zealand sheep has fallen 
away by 2^d., and Sydney mutton by 2^d. The margin of 
fluctuation in the River Plate sheep would seem to have been 
less, although the level all through has been lower. The price 
quoted for 1884 was under 5d., and the 1888 price is under 
S^d., so that about l^d. here represents the decline. 
A very useful and complete diagram was published last 
winter by Messrs. Weddel & Co., which enabled a continuous 
contrast to be given of the prices of all the several grades of 
home and foreign mutton. I am unable to condense that dia- 
gram here, although I should have liked to do so ; but I venture 
to invite attention to that I have roughly drawn on page 234, 
which records for the past five years a monthly price for prime 
Scotch, prime New Zealand, and River Plate mutton, and is so 
constructed as to show the monthly arrivals of the frozen mutton 
in each month of the period. We may thus trace the eflfect on 
prices of the supplies which the dark portion of each column 
represents. 
So little do the foreign arrivals affect prime values here that, 
comparing the quoted prices of New Zealand with those of 
the best Scotch mutton in London, it may be observed that the 
maximum and minimum were sometimes reached at opposite 
points. Thus, in the year 1886, Scotch values were lowest in 
January and highest in June, with a quotation touching lOd. ; 
but the New Zealand arrivals reached their highest point, or 
6d., in spring, and their lowest, 3|c^., in the autumn. In con- 
nection with these fluctuations it is well to note that March 
usually sees the lowest stock of frozen mutton in London, and 
October the largest, and the autumn prices of the frozen cargoes 
nearly always droop. 
