FAT LAMB TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 29, 4 February 1935, Page 8

FAT LAMB TRADE.

N.S.W. DEVELOPMENT HOPES.

INQUIRIES IN DOMINION.

A study of fat lamb production in New Zealand with the object of developing the export trade in New South Wales, is the object of the visit to the Dominion of Mr. Gordon Bennett and Mr. J. M. Colcman, who arrived from Sydney this morning on the Aorangi. Mr. Bennett is managing editor of an agricultural journal in Sydney, and hie companion an officer of the New South Wales Agricultural Department. Both are members of the Land Settlement Committee set up by the Government.

"One of the principal ideas of the committee is to see how far the fat lam!) industry can be applied in the closer settlement of big tracts of land in New South Wales," said Mr. Bennett. "There is very little Crowif land available for settlement, but there are large areas privately owned. To resume these compulsorily would involve great expenfie, and the Government has not the funds available. It is endeavouring to introduce some scheme to bring about voluntary subdivision."

At present the export of fat lambs from New South Wales was less than a million carcases, Mr. Bennett said, but farmers were turning their attention to it more because of the uncertainty of wheat markets and the better prospects of the lamb export trade. Jn the last 10 years there had been a decrease of 10,000 in the producers in the primary industries in New South Wales, which now totalled only 61,000 out of a population of two and a half millions. The Government was endeavouring to rectify this position by closer settlement. Messrs. Bennett and Coleman leave for Wellington to-night and will visit Canterbury and then return to Auckl&hd via Hawke's Bay and the Waikato.