CANNED EEL

Hokitika Guardian, 23 March 1931, Page 7

CANNED EEL

TUNAS TO BE COMMERCIALISED. AMBITIOUS PROJECT AFOOT. At last (reports the “Manawatu Standard”) the eel resources of New Zealand are to be tapped. Mr H. McGregor lias drafted a proposal in connection with the above projected industry to tlie Unemployment Board in Wellington and the Manawatu representatives on the board is sponsoring it. The proposal submitted is a fairly bulky and elaborate scheme, but the salient features arc:— (1) Arrangements are in hand for the immediate shipment of some four to six tons of fish to London to test the market there. The fish will be carefully packed in 50 to 1001 b boxes. Each fish will be neatly rolled in grease-proof paper after being thoroughly cleaned, skinned and dried sufficiently for the purpose. If the sale is satisfactory, and the market is considered good, then periodical shipments will go forward when necessary. CANNING FACTORY MOOTED. (2) Very shortly also factories will he established in the following places: Foxton, Tauranga, Ellersmere and Kaitnngata, for the purpose of (a) fanning the fish, manufacture of fish paste, smoking the fish (for export mostly) ; (b) also the fish oil, which from a nutritive standpoint is second to none in the world, will be manufactured and graded suitable for its many purposes; (c) the skins, which when tanned are very durable, also will bo made into leather; (d) any residue will be fed to poultry and pigs; (e) and by-product such as offal will be made into fertiliser and so on. It is considered by those who are competent to judge, states Mr McGregor, that permanent employment will be provided for some four to five thousand pahekas and Maoris. Seme 200 tons of eels are consumed in New York yearly. Denmark exports 4,500 tons to London yearly. -Hid there have been celeries in Ireland and Scotland for some hundreds of years. The resuit of the reception of the first shipment is awaited with much interest by those who are directly concerned with the project, and that the Unemployment Board will follow out its research in connection with + *•-> ,y*c to if s entirety is the earnest wish of everybody; also that steps will he taken until such research is finished, to stop nnv foreign country from exploiting (what hitherto has been deemed a somewhat useless product) what they know is a very valuable asset.