About thirty tons of fresh meat, preserved by a new
process, -which keeps the air round the meat at a low temperature, have been brought to London from Australia in the Strathleven,' and landed in excellent condition. A correspondent of the Times, who has eaten a dinner off a joint of this meat, and pro- nounces it " prime, fat, ox beef," says it can be delivered on board in Australia for 2d. a pound, and sold in London for 2d. more, or, say, with profit allowed, for 5d. a pound. Almost any quantity is procurable, there being in Australia seven and a half millions
of cattle and sixty-one millions of sheep ; and the process being, of course, as useful for the transport of South-American meat, which, however, is not of such prime quality. The intelligence is ominous for stock-breeders, and we do not know that it is very pleasant for anybody else, except the butchers. We are always hearing of new supplies of meat at low rates, and one supply, that from Canada, actually arrives, but there never is any serious reduction in the price of meat. The demand always seems to overtake the supply, and the only advantage to the consumer is the check placed upon a possible rise. Indeed, we are not sure the householder does not lose. With meat at 18d. a pound, the present wasteful ways of cutting, cooking, and using it would very soon be altered.
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