Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Report of the American Trade Commission on Industrial Conditions in Australasiia, 1914
Australia is one of the richest countries in the world. Its soil and its mountains contain treasures which should attract people from all parts of the globe. Its climate, varying from 110° to 30° admits of outdoor work all the year round, and the wonder is, how is it that, during a century and a quarter of existence, it has acquired a population of less than five million souls. True it is, that prior to the introduction of. The refrigera tion system of transporting meats and other perishable products the growth of this fertile country was necessarily slow, because. Being many thousands of miles from its nearest anglo-saxon neighbor and a thousand miles or more from any neighbor, it had only its home market for its perishable products, consist ing chie?y of mutton, beef and farm produce, consequently, carcasses of beef and mutton were boiled down for their tallow. Meat supply being greatly in'excess of demand, profits from sheep and cattle raising were confined principally to wool, pelts and hides.
The same conditions prevailed in New Zealand. A stock raiser who settled there in 1873 informed us that, prior to the introduction of the process for shipping frozen meats when local consumption was satisfied, everything had to be boiled down for tallow; that before the freezing companies could take sheep or cattle he got a head for a very nice lot of ewes, while cattle were as low as for cow and calf that now ordinary ewes are worth to $5. And special as high as a head, while forward bullocks are worth as much as $40 to $60 a head, and lambs to $5 each. Another large stock raiser in Australia informed us that, before the opening up of' foreign markets for Australian meats through the frozen meat system of transportation, he had himself peddled from door to door hind quarters of mutton which he sold at 12 to 18 cents each.
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