Grondh and Development of the Trade in Frozen Mutton. 239 
of the mutton-eating people of Britain. A story was pre- 
valent two j-ears ago that California had been invaded, despite 
her own 6,000,000 sheep, and that the frozen produce of the 
New Zealand pastures was actually selling in the streets of 
San Francisco. How the venture ended, if it was ever seriously 
made, I am unable to say ; but rumour stated that in the con- 
tract for the mail service between San Francisco and New 
Zealand the steamers employed should all be fitted with re- 
frigerating chambers. Perhaps the now ordinary use of these 
appliances for the preservation of the ship's own provisions was 
niag-nified out of its true dimensions. 
It should also be mentioned that frozen mutton from Texas 
reached London in January 1887, there being at least one ship- 
ment by the " Rowena" from the port of Galveston. The car- 
casses, however, were of a thin, small, merino type, and only 
4,500 in number. As they sold for 3cZ. to Q\d. per lb. only, 
although described as in good condition, this would not appear 
to be exactly a favourable reception for a new trade ; and though 
I have heard it declared tliat the shippers of the Antipodes 
must not regard it as impossible that large Texan competitive 
imports may be received in the near future, I have seen no 
reason to expect realisation of the prophecy. Nor could it be 
easy to reconcile the anticipation with the reports of the Agri- 
cultural Department at Washington, which show so heavy a loss 
of sheep in Texas that the stock of that State diminished by 
over 40 per cent, in only four years — a far more serious retro- 
gression than even that noted in the older European countries, 
and most certainly not a basis on which one would naturally 
found an appi'ehension of a serious competitive trade in mutton. 
England has heard, however, suggestions that another of 
her own colonies may yet send home mutton as well as wool. 
And if the future has in store an extension, not only of 
material wealth and growing flocks, but of energy and enter- 
prise in the large and, up to a recent date, rather neglected 
area of our South African territories, more may yet be heard of 
the proposal to start a frozen meat trade at the Cape of Good 
Hope. The plan has never, I believe, taken definite shape, but 
it was mooted some time back. The Cape alone, no doubt, con- 
tains over 11,000,000 sheep; Natal had, in 1885, half a million 
more ; and there has been ascribed to our neighbour in these 
parts, the Orange Free State, a flock of over 5,000,000 merinos. 
There is here, at all events, some material to ship from, although 
scarcely of the quality which would be likely to meet much 
demand in London, The need of some sort of return freight for 
vessels trading to the Cape was counted on to give an impetus 
