The Australian Moat Companies seem to us to be playing
an un- wise game, which we notice not for their sake, but for that of the public. They have got the ball at their foot. They can sell their meat at a cost which, allowing for cooking, bone, and house- hold waste, is barely a third of the cost of uncooked butcher's meat-7d. a pound instead of 19d. a pound—and if they can only get rid of the impression of over-cooking which spoils some of their specimens, they will have the limitless market they desire. In Manchester they have seriously affected butchers price-lists, and as Englishmen like meat and oannot pay its present price, their ultimate victory is quite secure. Under these circumstances, their managers are idiotic enough to com- pete for workhouse and prison contracts, that is to seek for a dividend to-day at the cost of dividends in perpetuity. The precise prejudice they have to face is that their meat is whole- some, but only good enough for paupers and convicts, and they de- liberately go and give that prejudice a seeming foundation. We are ashamed of their brains. Yankees would have tendered for the supply for Windsor Castle, the Guards' Mess, and the Travellers, and whether accepted or rejected, have advertised the tender.
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