THE MEAT "GLUT"

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 122, 17 February 1920, Page 8

THE MEAT "GLUT"

~. ..,„.... - +— — POSITION IN BRITAIN 1 REPORP PATAGONIAN PURCHASE : J.'A'MJablegrniri. from London states that ! the British Government has bought Tata- ; gonia's exportable surplus of meat for the year 1920. Tho report has attracted : interest locally, owing to the disinclination of. tho British Government to extend : its purchase of New Zealand moat beyond ■. tho middlo of this year, and the apparent ; possibility that sales of Dominion meat 1 in Britain will be. prejudiced by the oifi- ; 'ciat distribution of Patagonian supplies. 'Minister, answering a question on tho subject yesterday, said that lie had 110 official information concerning : the reported purchaso of Patagonian supplies.* But ho was not inclined, in any ease, u .to''attach much importance to 1 far as New Zealand was concerned. Most of the meat would bo : beef. Tho export of mutton from Pnta- ' goriia'was relatively a small-matter, and, the quality of this mutton won'd ; not bring it into serious competition With New Zealand supplies. Tho Patagonian meat, indeed, probably was not required for consumption in the United ' Kingdom at all. . .Much has been said about tho glut of . "fr'ejit in-Great Britain,'added the Prime i Minister. ' A fact overlooked in many quarters was' the relation befit*" this i "glut and the had English spring of last • • year. The hay was almost a failure in : many parte of England last year, and the root crops were very poor. The consequence was that wlfen winter came the farmers could not hold and fatten their stock. The strength of tho flocks and (herds had been maintained during the war in the United Kingdom. The lack ; of miter -fodder meant that large numbers of animals were pushed on to .the market in'order to relieve the farms, ' 'and this movement had been an important factor in causing the "glut," of . which so much had been heard lately. Ho believed that it accounted to a very great extent for the state of affairs that ' 'had been causing anxiety in this country.