SKIRTS IN CARCASES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 14, 27 October 1938, Page 8

SKIRTS IN CARCASES.

! COMPLAINT OF N.Z. LAMB. { ' Butchers throughout Britain are protesting at the growing tendency in exporting countries to leave the skirts in lamb carcases intended for the United Kingdom market. The butchers declare that this practice is a great detriment to the imported lamb and that it robs tlie carcase of its rvalue. The question was raised at a recent meeting of the Hants and Isle of Wight Butchers’ Council, when a speaker said that the practice was also being extensively followed in New Zealand. He thought that the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board should be communicated with, and was sure that the trade would find the Board only too willing to do everything possible to improve the Dominion’s trade with Great Britain. The National Federation of Meat Traders’ Association has been asked to make representations to the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board and the Australian Meat Board with a view to the removal of the skirt at the time of slaughter.

Checking the Drift. There is a general cry amongst farmers against the Government taking men off the land for Public "Works and it is rather unusual to hear from Palmerston North of a farmer advertising for a man and out of 19 applicants 13 of them were from Public Works and it is stated that married men prefer farm work when the accommodation is good. The farm workers of Britain and here are rebelling against being compelled to live in houses no better than are to be seen, in city slums and they are perfectly justified in doing so. If any farmer who requires a general farm hand, even if not for full time, can offer a comfortable cottage, garden and the keep of a cow, he will, like the man in Palmerston/ have no difficulty in getting a choice of several, and the price of a motor-car plus the costs of the first year’s running will pay for the building of a worker’s home. It is only repeating what has been frequently said in this column that one way of checking the drift of farm workers citywards is to provide at least some ,of the common amenities of city life.