IN OR OUT?

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11422, 19 January 1923, Page 2

IN OR OUT?

KIDNEYS IN LAMBS MR J. S. JESSEP SEES SOME HUMOUR IN SITUATION. Speaking a “Times” reporter yesterday, Mr J. S. Jes6ep, vice-chair-man of the New Zealand Meat Control Board, said:— “Since 1 have arrived back ilr the Dominion my attention has been drawn to the controversy that has recently been going on regarding retaining kidneys in lambs. Evidently somebody is being hurt. Speaking as a sheepfarmer, as chairman of directors of a freezing company, I have no hesitation whatever in saying the board has done absolutely the right thing. ‘As a director of a freezing company I would say it might be a better proposition, sy? far as the company is concerned, to take out the kidneys and kidney-fat, but aB a director of a farenirs’ co-operative freezing company, I should consider the interests of the producers, and get the best results lor the shareholder producers of my company; and being a co-operative ,company, this is naturally the service 'they Would expect from me. “The controversy is not without its humorous side. As an illustration, whilst at Home I have been in close contact with a very large buyer of frozen meat. He has some five hundred retail shops, and sells New Zealand mnttou and lamb exclusively. No man has a better knowledge of the retail trade in our lamb than he has. He assured me he preferred the kidneys being left in lambs, yet one of the freezing companies out here from whom he buys the bulk of his supplies, is at present taking an active part in advocating that all lambs’ kidneys should be taken out.

“My investigations in this matter were not solely confined to London, but covered the most important points of England and Scotland. One of the largest private retailers in Glasgow, who is a large purchaser of Canterbury frozen meat, stated emphatically that he would prefer the kidneys left in—one cannot imagine a Scotchman asking for the kidneys to be left intact if he could not find value in them.

“Now, as regards the matter of taint, which has been brought into the controversy, this is absurd considering the millions of lambs that have already gone forward from not only, the Dominion, but also from Australia and the Argentine, with the kidneys and Jndngy-fat intact, and from what fc have seen of the Argentine meat, irehave, nothing to teach them as regards preparation and dressing of their meat generally.”