The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-12-14 00:00:00

GAME v. BUTCHERS' MEAT.

The Times, on Tuesday, publi,hed the following
letter:—

A few days no a deputation waited upon Mr. Secretary
Bruce to complain of the high price of provision.. They
were, of course, courteously received, and no word of his
rebuked even the heresy of believing that any Iliuistry could
regulate the free market of a free country. Among the
speakers who stated the causes of this dealings., Mr. M'Ara
said that—

'The Game Laws Interfered with the food production of
the country. lithe land now used f.,r game preserving were
brought into cultivation, the supply of food would be in-
creased by one-fourth." _ . •• •

Upon this unsupported assertion I will only observe that
It is not on the waste laud that game prospers, for the simple
reason that It cannot find on it the grasses and insects which
cultivation produces, nor the grain which partridges and
phissaante glean from the stubble after harvest. The more
waste land there la, therefore, the less game will there be ;
and if Mr. M'Ara will walk over the 10,000 acres of the New
Forest for six hours I will answer for his not seeing IA many
hares or pheasant., for the reaaons I have stated. But in
referring to the deputation I will not enter into the wide
question of the Game Laws, and the many social results
which I believe render sonic law, of the kind indispensable,
but only upon their connevlon with the price of meat.
- - • •

Two years ago I asked the Government, in the Douse of
Lords, to give a return of all the gains including hares and
rabbits) sold hy licensed poulterers In Great Britain during
one year. Their subaltern replied that it could not be
obtained, and that to ask for it would he an interference
wilt private intereets. This is is absurd as untrue. The
game dealers are anxious to show what an import-
ant position they hold, both as regards the value of
their goods and as dispensers of on enormous quan-
tity of meat and will willingly give information on
the subject. I propose, therefore (D. V. ), at the next meeting
of Parliament to move for returns of all game sold by licensed
dealers, and also imported into Great Britain during the
season of 1872-3. These will of couture ne minus the amount
nrivately disposed of by owner, of game, which must be very
large. I believe the public will be surprised at the result when
they find that hares and rabbits, denounced by the Anti-Game
League as vermin," have become alined a staple food of the
working Masse, and an indispensable element in our manu-
factures. The following are a few statistics which I- have
obtained from thoroughly trustworthy persons, who have
, added, or are ready to append, their siguatures to their in-
formation. The amount sold at Bristol in one year was—
grouse, 1,180 ; black game, 93 partridges, 4,108 pheasants,
4,473 ; woodcocks, 451 ; snipes, 1,200 ; widgeon, 198 : teal,
Cdl ; wild ducks. 1264; plovers, 939; hares, 2,191; rabbits,
39,471—t0ta1, 36,219. At Southampton the number was—
partridges, 27,000; pheasants, 18,000 ; grouse, 18,200 : hares,
18,600; rabbits, 98,000 wild ducks, 18,000—total, 207,000.
These two return, from towns which an not the greatest
centres of population show the quantity of rabbits consumed
to Great Britain by navvies, miners, sod others of the work-
ing class, and will appear almost frOuloas. At Manches'er
and Birmingham toe consumption is immense. A gentle.
man of landed property in the West of England told
me that one dealer at B,rotingbare had offered to
take from him 10,04 rabbits per week, and that if
he chose to give up his land to breeding rabbits in-
stead of letting it as farms he would considerably in-
crease both the quantity of food and his Income. All
Immense number of rabbit. Is imported from Belgium, and
Mr. Brooks, the great salesman at Leadenball-market, tells
me that 1,50) cases of rabbits 01 100 each arrived weekly
from Ostend alone. How could we import rabbits from
abroad, and at the same time forbid their culture at home,
or attempt in the interest of the public to destroy this supply
of popular Pod?
Then again, as regards our manufactures Mr. Seeding,
one of our principle furriers and makers of felt hate, writes
to me that lag year in his own trade he used nearly two
million hare and rabbit skim, mad that he Is under the mark
In saying that the number of skins (chiefly English, which are
the best) manufactured and exported from this country was
30,000,000. Putting the animals at 2ilb. each (which is slow
average aaaaa labit weighs 21b. and share Mb.) they have given
alad mat 33,70 e tons of meat, and if we take their value at only Is.
each all round it will amount to £1,500,000. Such is the
statement of one of the largest manufacturers and expe-
rienced dealers In England. I could quote other towns and
persons, but these are sufficient to indicate to the Govern-
ment and the public the importance of obtaining statistics
of this part of the "price of meat" question before they
take for gosoel the assertions of egitators, who hope to
drive their hubby throuult Parliament by their aaauranee
and the very weariness which they inflict on their hearer..
The Anti. Game Law League lays it down as a dogma that
• the protection of game diminishes the food of the people.
Probably, if these returns, which I know can be obtained,
should be given' the reverse will be eetabliehed, and we
shell appreciate these animals not as "vermin," but, when
fostered with discretion, as among the most useful gifts of
Providence.-1 remain; Jte. tdeutssmor.
• L3andon, Dec. 7.

The TiMV, on Wednesday, published the following
•in reply to the above :
in The Times of the 10th you print a letter from
the Earl of al alinealaury, intended to prove that the protec-
tion of game, and more especially of rabbits, doe, not
diminish the food of the country. I would not have asked
you for permission to reply if your correspondent had not
repeated the charge that the Anti-Game Law League de-
nounces hares and rabbits as "vermin" In the rind place,
" vermin " simply means "creeping things," and the word
is the common legal term for rabbits and the like. In the
nest place, humem have long been wont to call every animal
which injures their crops ‘• vermin." In these two muses
the opponents of the Game Law, have caUr.d harm and
rabbits "vermin," but never as a reflection upon the food
which they yieli.
Will you also permit roe to say that the quantity of imported
game is altogether wide of the mark in this argument ; that
hares and rabbits, consuming many times their own value
as toed, cannot be remunerative when produced on arable
or rich pastime land.; that what we want to do la, not to
"forbid their culture at home," but to give farmers the
mere power of def. uding their crops, and to prevent game-
preservers from trenching on the liborly of their tenants or
neighbours?
The Earl of Malmesbury is not going to the root of the
matter. We say that game and rabbits cost the country far
more than they return. If this is admitted, then the more
game, etc., that any one can show to be produced in Great
Britain the mote incontestably he will pro," that the law
ought to cease to roster it.—T am, &c.,
LEWIS SMIGEANT,
December 10, Conductor Anti-Goma Law.

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