NEW ZEALAND MEAT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21731, 21 February 1934, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND MEAT

SHIPMENT TO BRITAIN

OTTAWA AGREEMENT ALLEGED BREACH" OF PACT t > ■ References to New Zealand meat fchipment and the terms of the Ottawa Agreement in respect to limitation were made at /a meeting of the British Council of Agriculture in December. Sir Arthur Hazlerigg, Bart., of Leicester, in referring to the Ottawa Agreements Act of 1932, said one saw there a satisfactory cut of imports of frozen ! mutton and lamb and frozen beef. One •would imagine that, with a restriction of 10 per cent from January to March, 15 per cent in the next quarter, and -0 per cent in the next of frozen beef, there would be loss frozen beef coming into the /country.

Curiously enough, 57.000cwt. more frozen beef had come in during the first nine months of the year, owing, he understood, to some peculiar arrangement whereby foreigners imported beef cuts outside the total. That, he understood, was now no longer a possibility. The imports of chilled beef, although to bo maintained at 100 per cent, had since been cut, for which agriculturists were extremely grateful to the Minister.

As regards New Zealand and Australia, said Sir Arthur, their shipments of frozen mutton and lamb were to be maintained at a high figure. As regards frozen or chilled, or live cattle, none of the Dominions had any restriction put upon them at all. Terms of Agreement If the terms of the New Zealand Agreement were examined, said the speaker, one would find that an understanding had been arrived at between the Governments as to their sendings. It was expressly stated that the New Zealand exports were estimated for the season 1932-33 at no more than 440,000 cwt. for the year. The trade figures of receipts from New Zealand in the first 10 months of that year showed 661,000 cwt., or 11.000 tons more than it was said she would export. This meant either that there had been an entire miscarriage of intention, or it was the most gigantic, bluff ever put up to blind the British farmer. Sir Arthur said it was for the Government to implement its pledge that

the British farmer should have the first

call on his own market. The Minister / had said that the Government would not cease its efforts on the. beef question. and that there had already been a reduction of foreign imports of beef of 15.000 tons of chilled beef and 8000 tons of frozen beef in one quarter of this year. But what about the thousands of cattle coming from Canada and the 10,000 pxtra tons from New Zealand in the first 10 months? The Minister of Agriculture, Major Elliot, reminded the speaker that the 15,000 and 8000 tons referred to last quarter and not to the 10 months. Sir Arthur asked how much of that extra 10,000 tons was now in cold storage? The - whole situation, he said, proved how comparatively useless quotas alone on beef importation could be. There were no restrictions on fat cattJe from Canada, and there was apparently no attempt to keep New Zealand to her promise. Reply by the Minister

Major Elliot said the crisis in livestock was of relatively recent origin, and it was that rather than any intentional default that had decided the order of things. In livestock there was not merely ,the groat Home productions to consider, but the great Imperial productions as well, and enthusiastic advocates'of absolutely unrestricted imports from the rest of the Empire appeared rather to have led astray agricultural opinion in the past. The Minister said he took it as a message from the council that it insisted upon the desirability and the necessity of some organisation of Imperial supplies as well as of foreign supplies if' the Home agriculturist is to survive. He put that point to the meeting, which was unanimously agreed to, there being no voice to the contrary. ■ j