THE MEAT RESTRICTIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 246, 16 September 1932, Page 6

THE MEAT RESTRICTIONS.

It will be pleasing news to Dominion meat producers to learn that there are to bo no restrictions upon the export of mutton, lamb and beef from this country to Great Britain. When at the conclusion of the protracted negotiations at Ottawa the agreements were signed, it was cabled that the “agreement with Australia and New Zealand also embodies restrictions on the import of mutton and lamb, allotting the Dominions’ proportions of Britain’s estimated consumption.” This gave rise to considerable misgivings, there not having been a suggestion that the quota principle should be applied to meat exports from this Dominion. The details, it was further cabled, would not be discussed until submitted to the British Parliament for fear of upsetting the trade. A statement by Mr Coates, brought to New Zealand this week, makes the position clear and shows that there is not to be a restriction upon this Dominion’s meat. Under the agreement foreign imports will be reduced in volume, and the Commonwealth also agrees to limit certain exports. The imports of Argentine beef, it will be recalled, were not to exceed in the yearending June next those for the immediately preceding _ twelve months. In consideration of Great Britain regulating her foreign meat imports the Commonwealth undertook to limit its mutton and lamb exports for 1933 to an amount equivalent to its total exports for 1932. New Zealand was only required to give reliable estimates of its shipments at the beginning of each export season, and these were furnished by Mr Coates after consulting with Mr D. Jones, the chairman of the Meat Producers’ Board. New Zealand’s important position as the supplier of a very large proportion of the Mother Country’s imports of frozen mutton and lamb would have been considerably affected had the cable message been accurate. That it is not so is a matter for thankfulness. The meat producers will face the future with a better outlook and the firm hope that prices will return to a sound level.