MEAT EXPORT TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 300, 12 September 1908, Page 6

MEAT EXPORT TRADE.

A HARMFUL PRACTICE. If the proper action is taken, Mr. W. H. Tisdall, of Wellington, who returned from the Old Country a few days ago, is doing the State a good turn by exposing a fraud that is being practised at Home, which is calculated t-o be harmful to the meat export trade of New Zealand. Mr. Tisdall did not make a flying visit to England in the popular manner. He was seventeen months away from Wellington, and, with the exception of the time occupied on the voyages Homo and back, ho resided in and about -the Midlands of England, whero ho has friends and relatives. , Being a loyal New Zealander by adoption, Mr. Tisdall deemed it a duty to bring under the notice of friends the excellence of New Zealand mutton. . Acting on his advice, several families residing in his - native town (situated near Birmingham) began to ask for New Zealand meat, and no other. . The retail branch of a well-known firm of butchers had no difficulty in supplying "Prime Canterbury." The meat .was not so nice as Mr. Tisdall expected it would be, but he did not consider it politic to say so. Besides, he had no experience of frozen meat as an article of diet. One thing ho noticed, however, was that whenever a hindquarter of "Prime Canterbury" was brought into the house the kidneys still adhered to the piece, which he suspected was. not the case in mutton shipped from New Zealand. He did not bother any further about the matter, and was not sure - what practice was adopted in any case, and he merely mentioned the matter as an instance of how a possible fraud might bo located. The Dominion representative who interviewed Mr. Tisdall on his arrival instituted some inquiries, and ascertained that none of tho meat-freezing and exporting companies export hindquarters with kidueys attached. The kidneys arc stripped from the carcasses and shipped Home in boxes. Tho evidence seems quite conclusive that a deception is being practised on tho English public, and that tho fair name of one of the Dominion's chief products is being smirched by something inferior. _To what extent the . fraud has been practised would not be easy to say, but it is to assume that what is done in one place is common in others. This afternoon, at Miramar, tho final schools' football mateh for tho season will bo played betwoen tho Technical School oldboys and present boys. Representatives have boon chosen as follow:—Old Boys—Shearer, M'Cardell, Hutchison, Robinson, Doherty, Baskiville, Johnson, Alexander, Graham, Chapman, Tarr, Diehl, Abol, Kean, Highett, and Guise. Present Boys—Home, Standen, Hodge, Watson, Tilyard, Heley, Angell, Thiskeil, Wallis, Shaw, Williamson, Lower, M'Leod, A. Hamilton, and W. Hamilton. This is the first of a series of annual matches proposod to be played between old and new boys. It is anticipated that tho school will bo in a position next year to enter a team for the Fourth Class Rugby competition. The Eastbourne Borough Council advertises for tonders lot the borough sanitary contract.