MEAT RESEARCH WORK

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 8 November 1933, Page 8

MEAT RESEARCH WORK

CENTRAL CONTROL URGED

POVERTY BAY OPINIONS

GISBORNE. Nov. 6

The necessity for some central body to control research into matters concerning frozen meat was again -stressed by tho P'ovorty Day and East Coast Sheepowners.’ Union’s committee meeting to-day, -when the attitude of the Meat Board delegates wei e criticised.

The .president, Mr C. H. Williams said he could not agree with the stand taken by tho Poverty Bay delegates to the electoral college in endorsing the attitude of the hoard, which t onsidered that a subsidy to the Cambridge Low Temperature Research Station was sufficient. Things were going on in the works at Gisborne that nw.ght b© or might not be on the right lines, and research, was necessary to prove whether they were right. Independent and careful research was the duty of the Meat Board. Last year, Mr Williams added, there were innumerable complaints of bone taint in cattle, and no one knew what caused it. The Cambridge Low Temperature Research Station could do nothing to help the Gisborne fanner in this respect. Methods of handling carcases differed at the various works One instance he quoted was in regard to the wiping of the carcases. In one freezing works one cloth was used for two carcases only, whereas- at another works a cloth was used until worn out. One method might be as effective a-s the other, but there was no one to say definitely that that was so, or to isav that one was wrong and the other right. Therefore, he wished the union to be dissociated from the attitude taken by the delegates. Mr ,F. E. Humphries! sajid that while there was- no central research station, the efforts in this direction bv individual works benefited only those works and not the producers a-s a whole. Also, there was considerable I overlapping as. a result of individual effort.

Mr E. R. B&vck added his protest to that of Mr Williams on the action taken by the delegates to the Meat Board electoral college. In regard to bone taint, it had been suggested that the eauise was the overheating of the beasts in driving, but he did not think this was so. The president said that a prominent Hawke’s Bay meat buyer had 1 said that this comolaint had 'been frequent, and suggested that the cattle should be starved for 24 hours before they were driven to the works. Two of the members said that they bad' had to make refunds last season owing to the discovery of bone taint iir beef, the loss totalling about £IOO for the two members mentioned. The meeting endorsed the president’:* attitude.