The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1907. Major Long's Opinion's.

Feilding Star, Volume I, Issue 281, 1 June 1907, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1907. Major Long's Opinion's.

Last week the opinion of Major Long, D.5.0., of the British Army Service Corps, who was sent out to the colonies on behalf or the War Office to inquire into the meat supply question, was cabled over from < Australia as derogatory to the ability of New Zealand to supply the requirements of the department he is attached to, but the mail has since somewhat modified that interpretation of his impressions. He told an interviewer that "he could not see i that there was any hope of business with New Zealand, for the reason that preserving was made quite secondary to the exporting of frozen carcases of beef and mutton, which trade ran into some millions per annum. He had inspected the New Zealand freezing works, and would ! give his favourable impressions in his official reports to the War Office. He I found the quality of the tinned meats to be excellent and the system one of 1 cleanliness, but the industry was only on a small scale, say, about 1 £100,000 per annum. He inspected altogether twenty-three establishments in New Zealand. His instructions were that he should see the class and condition of cattle slaughtered, inquire into the general system of Government inspection, the process of converting the stock into preserved meat, the sanitary condition of the establishments, etc. **The annual turnover for the British Army was three million pounds of tinned meats, and it was proposed to endeavour to have opened to that army an avenue through which big supplies could be obtained to meet eventualities should an occasion arise as it did in . the case of the South African war." If the demand for tinned* meats for the army at a reasonable price is genuine, we are not afraid of New Zealand being able to stimulate production in sufficient quantities to satisfy the most exacting expert.