CHILLED BEEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21555, 28 July 1933, Page 5

CHILLED BEEF

NEW ZEALAND SHIPMENT EXPERIMENTS IN AUSTRALIA ENCOURAGING- RESULTS [rilOM OUR OWN COItRESPONDENT] SYDNEY. July 20 In foreshadowing action by tha Federal Government to assist the establishment of the chilled beef trade. Ministers have made special referenco to the experimental shipment by New Zealand in the Port Fairy. This was due to reach London early this week, and reports as to its condition and the way in which it was received are anxiously awaited, for they will havo an important bearing on the future of tho meat trade of Australia. Tha Minister of Commcrco is calling a conference of departmental experts and others, and this wi'l be held in Melbourne very soon. Full reports of tha New Z a'and shipment will be available at that conference. Tho New Zealand beef is being carried in an atmosphere containing car* bon dioxide, the object of which is to suppress microbal growth. Senator McLachlan, Minister in Charge of tho Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said that experiments had been carried out in Brisbane on tha storage of chilled beef at the council's food preservation laboratory, which was run in conjunction with tho Queensland Meat Industry Board. Those experiments had indicated that when concentrations of carbon dioxide of 10 per cent to 12 per cent were employed in the storage atmosphere, beef would keep in good condition for upwards of 60 days. Such a period of storage would bo ample to ensure safe transport to England. One marked advantage of employing carbon dioxide for suupressiiig bacterial and mould growth, Baid the Minister, was that it was unnecessary to employ forced air circulation during storage, and the bloom of Jio meat, therefore, was not impaired to any material extent. Further experimental work was proceeding on various details on which information was necessary before it was possible to proceed with regular shipments on a commercial scale. However, it must be obvious that Australian woik on this highlyimportjnt economic problem was well advanced. The council, said Mr. McLachlan. could speak with confidence of the results of the tests, because thev,-had been built up on a prolonged stndv of the growth of micro-organisms at low temperature, and the main types' and sourcec of infection durine the dressing and handling of the beef. They had been substantiated by three separate types of experiment—the storage of quarters of beef, the growth of many types of moulds, bacteria inoculated on sterile tubes of meat, and the growth of many organisms in artificial cultures. The Australian experiments, were well up to those of any other country and the portents were en* couraging. ■ J. AND P. COATS IMPROVED PROFITS • BUSINESS WITHIN EMPIRE i - [from our own correspondent] LONDON, June 23 "Prohibitive tariffs, quotas, exchangi:; restfictions and almost "fevery other conceivable obstacle to the free flow of trade still exist—indeed, in many cases to an accentuated degree," stated Mr. J. 0. M. Clark, chairman of J. and P. Coats, cotton manufacturers, at the annual meeting at Glasgow. "High hopes have been set upon the result of the Economic Conference, and , there can be no doubt that the recent improvement in business sentiment has been largely founded upon these samo hopes. If these expectations are disappointed, and the conference is n<> more successful than the many other international conferences that have been * held since the war, we shall be faced, I fear, with a sharp reaction in opinion and a serious impairment of confidonce. "On the other hand, our turnover in the British Dominions and colonies has been maintained. We had looked forward to the conference, at Ottawa last year and to the possibility that we might derive some benefit by a reduction in the high tariffs levied on our British manufactured ; .',oods in many parts of the Empire, but I regret to say that our hopes were disappointed - "and no reduction of any importance in the rate of duty was conceded. I think I am expressing the opinion of textile manufacturers generally when I say that the conference did little to widen the opportunities of trade within tho Empire so far as the textile business is concerned." The prices both of Egyptian and American varieties remained at a low level during the entire year, although the fluctuations within that period were considerable. The spot price of Egyptian cotton at the beginning of January, 1932, was 7d per lb.; by June it had fallen to almost ojd, the lowest figure on record. By September the price was over 9Jd, • while at the end of December it was 7Jd, or only slightly - above the figure at which it stood in Januarv. It is interesting to comparo that with the high figure of 99d touched in 1920. , , . "The profit," said the chairman, is greater by about £200,000 than tha* of the previous year, and _ with the carrv forward amounts to £2,440,10-5. The/directors have decided to reeomI mend a bonus of 2} per cent. Although 1 our profits for last year show an improvement on the previous year, thta was partly due to a gain in exchange on remittances from certain countries owing to Great Britain going off gold.