OUR Daily Features

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXX, Issue 13510, 4 December 1941, Page 2

OUR Daily Features

News items from our files of fifty years ago are as follow: “It is satisfactory to learn that, despite the heavy premiums offered for fine sheep by the government of Uruguay, River Plate frozen mutton is still far behind New Zealand in the matter of quality. Speaking at the annual meeting of the River Plate Frozen Mutton Company last week, the chairman in a rather depressing report lamented the carelessness and indifference of the Plate sheep farmers in not trying to produce a better article. He added, however, that their sheep could never attempt to rival New Zealand’s till some proper scab laws were in operation,’’ “The pretty little town of Napier is perhaps the best supplied of any place in New Zealand with fish. The supply is almost constant, plentiful,

and of admirable quality. Not only is this nutritious article of diet cheap for local use, but a considerable export trade is also done in it to Australia when the freezing works are in operation. Valuable fishing banks have been found to exist in Hawkes Bay, and midway between the town and the Kidnappers large quantities of excellent soles and flounders are obtained by trawling in deep water. A steam launch and quite a little fleet of sailing boats are engaged in the industry, and on a fine day they present a very picturesque appearance from the Esplanade, as seen pursuing their work in the bay. When the meat freezing works are in operation large hauls of fish are, as we have said, frozen and shipped by the Union Company’s boats to Melbourne and Sydney. The market is said to be a very good one, and the trade most remunerative. The demand for good fish in Australian towns is practically unlimited.”