OUR TINNED MEAT INDUSTRY.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12531, 28 June 1906, Page 6

OUR TINNED MEAT INDUSTRY.

If the conference which Sir Joseph Ward has had with the leading London importers of" New Zealand meats has no other effect, it should servo to attract attention to the, wide difference, between meat-preserving methods in Chicago and this colony. Still better Tosulte will" assuredly follow the adoption oY Sir Joseph's suggestion that the utmost publicity should bo given.at Home to tlie system of factory inspection that is carried out here. This is precisely the course which we urged the Government and tho meat companies to adopt sis soon as tho Chicago reflations shocked tho public. We* quite believe j that Mr Weddcl and Sir Montague Neltx>n wero correct -when they de- ' dared that tho diminution in J British orders for New Zealand tinned meats was not duo to dissatisfaction with tho New Zealand system of inspection, nor, wo imagine, with I tho quality of the gecda. But the I British publipfeek that it has had all ! tho tinned meat it wanto for a time, and in declining to buy any more at , prosent it do?s not stop to look at the labels on the tins, or to discriminate between Canterbury sheeps , tongues anil Chicago embalmed beef. Tho tinned meat industry- of the world is isiifferin.g from the .revulsion caused by the sickening dhclceures from Chicago, and the ju v ,t, nft is generally the ca.se>, arc suffering with tho unjust. Tho prejudice will, no doubt, die down before* long, at kast to a certain extent, and if in the interval tho British public can havo been, mado to realise that I they havo nothing to fear from New I Zealand products, the New Zealand meat companies should bo able to get fomo share of tho trade that has hitherto largely gone to Chicago. This should ba tho case with the. army orders. It will bo difficult, wo imagine, for a long time to got Tommy Atkir.s to eat any tinned meat bearing an American brand, and h:r> very natural reluctance should bo New Zealand's opportunity. Even the British taxpayer, with all his deI eire for economy, will not insist that the War Office should continue to buy meat for the army in the cheapest marj ket, if the practice involves purchasing it in America, to tho exclusion of the British colonies. The New Zealand product may be slightly more costly, but at least the authorities • would know what they were ! getting, which is apparently more than th-ey have done -in the past. Mr Roevcs has, it seems, been at some painis to bring tho virtues of New Zealand meats under 'the notice of the authorities, and those concerned in the industry in the colony cam materially assist him if they impress upon the ofiicial mind and the British public generally," tho cleanly processes through which the meats psuss before they reach th? market.