passenger train. Small orders, say, for a quarter of beef or for a 
few sheep, may be despatched in the guard’s van of a passenger 
train. 
Prices of frozen goods tend to one level throughout the 
sountry, allowing for variations due to rail or other haulage 
charges. This is only to be expected where so many traders 
have such widespread organisations, for if the market, say, in 
Manchester, is high on any day owing to short arrivals in 
Liverpool, ample supplies, from London or elsewhere, can be made 
available by the time that the market opens on the following 
morning. In times of superabundant supplies, prices throughout 
the country frequently do not even differ by the amount of the 
above charges, for pressure at the ports is relieved by consign- 
ment inland where prices fall in consequence. It frequently pays 
the importer to lose his haulage charges, if by so doing he can 
prevent a slump in any centre where he has large supplies 
awaiting sale. 
Although rail charges are a serious factor, meat traders are 
unable to take advantage of coastal steamers owing to the 
absence of refrigerated space. A good deal of the trade between 
British and Continental ports is done in non-refrigerator craft, 
particularly in cold weather. The reason for this absence of 
refrigerated space is that the movements of meat over short 
distances by sea are too irregular to justify its provision. If an 
importer requires meat at any port other than London, he 
endeavours to arrange for direct consignment to that port from 
the country of origin and so saves rail and handling charges, 
while the meat reaches its destination in better condition. 
There appears to be little logic in the distribution of supplies 
of imported meat in this country. Theoretically, at least, the meat 
ports are admirably placed for dealing efficiently with distribu- 
tion, for each is surrounded with important consuming areas. 
Newcastle, for instance, serves the coal and steel areas of the 
North Riding of Yorkshire, Northumberland, Durham and 
Cumberland ; Hull is well placed for the West Riding and the 
North-East Midlands; Manchester and Liverpool for Lancashire, 
Cheshire, the West Riding, the Midlands and North Wales; 
the Bristol Channel ports for South Wales and the lower Severn 
basin; Southampton for the Southern and Western Counties, 
and London for the Home and Eastern Counties and the South 
Midlands. Enquiry into the distribution of meat by rail from 
these points shows, however, that, though each of the meat ports 
is regularly used, to some extent, for the distribution of supplies 
in its own area, each also contributes to the areas of the others. 
From Newcastle, for example, apart from railages within its own 
area, meat is railed to Edinburgh and Glasgow, Lancashire 
(including Manchester and Liverpool), South Yorkshire, the 
Midlands, and occasionally to London; meat is received—in 
the order of tonnage—from Liverpool, London, Hull, Manchester 
and Glasgow. Hull sends supplies to Lancashire, Yorkshire, the