Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1940. MEAT FOR BRITAIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 250, 30 July 1940, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1940. MEAT FOR BRITAIN.

That the meat producers in New Zealand are doing their utmost to ensure adequate supplies of essential foodstuffs to Britain is shown by the annual report of the Meat Producers Board. The aggregate killings at the works during the year ended June 1 represented 11,726,844 freight carcases, an increase of no less than 1,649,922 over the record established in the preceding period. Over ten million lambs were included. This result has not been achieved without sacrifice, for the Board says: "The effect of the record kill this season, so far as mutton and lamb is concerned, is reflected in the flock returns at April 30, 1940. The official interim figures just to hand show that the total flocks at that date are now estimated at 31,050,850, a decrease, of 846,241. The breeding ewes at the same date are officially a decrease of 283,841. This position has particular importance for sheepfarmers in the South Island, because the decrease here is actually thirty thousand more than that figure as the other Island records an increase. Producers themselves will have to study the bearing of these figures on the future of their industry, but another point of supreme importance in which they may require external aid concerns the provision of adequate cool storage facilities. The Board reports that already a great deal has been done to remedy deficiencies in this respect, but it is of the opinion that the additional storage provided is not yet commensurate with the increased kill. The production of foodstuffs for Britain is among the first of our national responsibilities and there is no telling when a sudden intensification of Germany’s counter blockade may interrupt .shipping schedules and throw an additional strain on local storage space. The people of Great Britain have cheerfully accepted the rationing of foodstuffs as a precaution against such an emergency, while the • producers of the Dominion are playing their part in the effort to ensure that this rationing will be adequate. There is still the necessity of seeing that, from the farm to the ocean liner, all obstacles to the prompt and efficient supply of foodstuffs to the Mother Country are rapidly removed.