DOMINION MEAT EXPORT

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11415, 11 January 1923, Page 3

DOMINION MEAT EXPORT

IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY NEW ZEALAND AND ARGENTINE COMPETITION. LESSONS TO BE LEARNED. Som© interesting facte concerning the New Zealand meat export trade were given to a “Times” reporter yesterday by Captain A. W. Pearse, F.R.G.S., of Sydney, sol© New Zealand and Australian representative of the Port of London Authority, who has just returned to Wellington after a tour of the Dominion extending over a period of about six weeks. For over thirty years Captain Pearse has been. closely connected with the world’s meat export trade; on two occasions he has represented the whole of the New Zealand and Australian meat works at the international gathering of the Refrigeration Congress at Paris and Chicago, at the latter being sole delegate for the Federal Government of Australia. . He has made a number of visits to the meat works of Argentine, Uruguay, and Brazil, as well as the New Zealand and Australian works. Regarding New Zealand, he saya there are several matters which require remedial effort before we can place our meat on an equal footing as regards outward appearance with that from Argentina, and the marks used by this Dominion are too numerous; no consignment of less than 300 sheep should have a separate mark. Ships have to go to too many ports for small lots, paying high port and pilotage dues at each, and taking as long to pick up a cargo as it takes for the return trip between London and Buenos Ayres, which naturally helps to keep freights up. A ship only pays one set of dues in Argentina, even if she visits several river ports for a cargo on that trip. DHOW MEAT IS DAMAGED.

In gotne Dominion ports meat is still being lightered, and rope or canvas slings used to hoist meat on hoard. A great deal of damage is done in this way, as the glings bump up against the side of the ships and hatchways, soiling the oovers and bruising the meat. When Argentine "meat arrives in London, if the wrapper is soiled it is torn off and a dean one substituted before it is hung in Smit'hfield. Men are specially appointed to do this, hut this practice does not appear to he followed by Australia'and New Zealand. “Argentina does everything to please the purchaser,” _ said Captain Pearse, “while Australia and New Zealand think that because the meat suits them everyone in England should be pleased. But the London market is the most fastidious in the world, and it is theie that the best in the world is required, and it can always find a market.” HINTS FOR NEW ZEALAND. Speaking of treatment in the Argentine, Captain Pearne said all cattle are dehorned when young, so that there is no bruising caused by horns in the trucks. In New Zealand, and especially Australia, a great deal of damage is done through the cattle being bruised by the horns in the trains, and this has a deteriorating effect on the remainder. In hot weather,. Argentine cattle receive a shower bath every 100 miles, running under a tank in a siding, each truck getting a hath as it goes past, the top of the truck sliding hack. Cattle may not he kept in trucks for more than 36 hours. In Australia heavy losses are incurred by leaving animals for long hours without food or water in high temperatures. CATTLE ON RAIL. Comparisons were also made between the trucks and the methods of loading in Argentina and New Zealand. The former has fixed couplings and end on loading, thus avoiding jolting, while in the Dominion loose couplings and truck-by-truck loading is the custom. The magnificent railway systems in Argentina are under strict control. “State-owned railways must eventually ruin any extensive country like Australia, and I think New Zealand would do much better if the railways were privately owned.”

The London charges for meat, including 28 days’ storage, as from January Ist, are .under one-fifth of a penny in the lib, being a reduction of 18 per cent, in six months, while New Zealand has not reduced her port charges a cent since the war. COMPLAINTS REMEDIED. The following extract from the report of the Dominions Royal Commission shows the principal factors which make London the premier port:—“The largest proportion of produce from the Dominions, and especially that from Australia and New Zealand, comes through the Port of London, which is the best market in the world, and, further, a market where not only high prices are obtained, but where it is always possible to find a buyer and also the advantage in regard to finance and insurance not obtainable at other ports. We think that the Dominions are entitled to ask for all possibile facilities in regard to the handling and disposal of their produce, and the action of the authority has been energetic, and it appears to have taken a fairly wide view of the improvements immediately needed. Looking at the question as a whole, we feel justified , in saying that practically all reasonable causes of complaint against the authority appear to have been removed or to be in process of removal.”

“Since that time,” concluded Captain Pearse, “another three millions have been spent on further improvements.”