FRENCH TURKEYS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 208, 17 August 1927, Page 5

FRENCH TURKEYS

TRIAL SHIPMENT MADE. 200 BIRDS IN COLD STORAGE. Auckland, Aug. 16. New Zealand fanners who raise turkeys for the local market are not likely to be worried by the proposal to ship 200 birds from France to the Dominion in cold storage as a trial shipment. From the census taken in April of last year it appears there were then 77,000 turkeys in the Dominion. The same return showed 39,308,000 fowls, 352,000 ducks and 44,000 geese. It is therefore clear that the New Zealand turkey population is relatively not large compared with fowls and ducks.

All the same it seems to be big enough to satisfy the public’s demands. Turkey eating is not a New Zealand habit. In these Southern lands Christinas is a midsummer festival and heavy dinners give h l.:re to picnic meals by stream ad set shore. The orthodox, plump turkey gobbler and plum pudding are no longer in favour.

A moderate supply of turkeys comes on to the Auckland market all the year round increasing at Easter and Christmas. Large gobblers bring 18s to 25s according to weight, hens about IDs, and younger birds 6s 6d upwards. Most appear to come from Ngaruawahia, Cambridge, Te Aroha and the Bay of Islands. A few farmers having enough land with suitable trees and shelter make a speciality of rearing them. But the large majority are odd birds taken from small flocks.

It seems likely that the birds from France having to be shipped by way of. London can be profitably sold at current local prices. They will lie bought only as a delicacy and by people who seek novelties in the way of food. It will be rather like “sending coals to Newcastle."