EXPOST OF PERISHABLE PRODUCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17065, 25 July 1917, Page 8

EXPOST OF PERISHABLE PRODUCE.

INSUFFICIENT COLD STORAGE. Sir James Wilson, president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, speaking yesterday at the annuaJ dominion conference of that organisation, discussed interestingly the subject of the frozen meat and dairying industries. Ihe stores for freight carcases in New Zealand were, ho said, more congested than they bad ever been. The Prime Minister had said there would shortiv be four million carcases shipped, and "we had only tour months to clear them in. It was certain we could not do this before the new season began It would- take 40 vessels at least to do this, and that would mean 10 a month, so that we might, find ourselves with a. couple of millions in store in JNovembcr.. The worst of this was that ii was the cream of our trade which was likely to suffer.- Lamb was not wanted for our troops, and other Classes of meat had to be shipped first in the refrigerated holds. At the end of the season, then, there must be a larger proportion of lambs left m store than almost any other class of meat, i-iamb would begin to come in in December, still further increasing this quantity. Jrr.ces would have to fall in consequence, tor if the buyers could not ship their stu.l they could not buy—or, if they did Duy, it would have to be at a large discount. This nad_ seriously alarmed those whose principal business it was to fatten lambs. It had been suggested that the slaughter of ewe lambs should be prohibited, but if this stoppage of sale occurred there would be a prohibition of another k.nd. Black-faced would have to be frozen, but at present it looked as if very few long-woolled lambs would be killed. The last returns showed that more than half our flocks (the numbers bring complied as at April 30) con sisted of breeding ewes. That should give something between nine and 10 million lambs. If the number slaughtered for food purposes were deducted, four millions of these would bo accounted for, leaving about hvo million five hundred thousand to kee-a up the flocks. The total number of sheep taken at April 30 do not, of course, include the lambs slaughtered and frozen, and as bv that time most of the lamb for export had found its way into the freezing chambers. _ that would materially increase the showing of the numbers in the aggregate. The total cold storage was put down as equal to 4,400,000 freight carcases. If, then the stores were founjd with two million in i . n?' there was a margin of snace for 2,400,000. The output of the year normally was 6,003 000. leaving 3,600, «X) carcasS to be provided for by space in oversea steamers. How many of these could be exported during the season, or how much additional storage could be provided? It was possible, of course, that sufficient space m ght be provided on ocean-going steamersbut it did not seem likely. Seventeen steamers were promised, however, before ths end of Sptember, and Mr Maesev was sanguine that _we should see the season through; but it devolved upon farmers to provide winter feed for more lambs than were usually carried through the winter Ihe farmers would not be able to grow )vheat and also provide additional food to carry the lambs through the winter Touching upon the statement in connection with the report of ewe and lamb carcases that some exporters had been able to make large profit, Sir James Wilson said he knew nothing of this. He did not think, hovfever, that it could be laid at the door of the committee which controlled space, for he thought it had no control over what was being shipped. The congested condition of the storage had brought about a financial question The Imperial Government had bought f.0.b., and none, or only small quantities, were being shipped. Ihe banks were providing the wherewithal to pay for the stock, and there was some uneasiness created by the position That was got over by the Minister of A<*riculture arranging that the Home Government would take over the whole of the meat, and bo responsible for the storage, though only paying for it when placed on board. It had not been stated whether this was the case of all further meat going into store or not j but when wool was paid for on i delivery at store, there certainly should be a similar arrangement about the meat. If lamb was kept back for another year it might easily result in a. very heavv loss to the holders. * y

The price paid for the cheese which had been purchased on behalf of the Imperial authorities during the past season seemed to have been a lair one; but the storage question had been a difficulty. That seemed to be in a fair way of being arranged, and increased' storage provided at the different ports to take in a much larger quantity during the coming season. We should expect that even the additional storage would be taxed to, the utmost. Especially was that the case m the Auckland province, which during the_ last few seasons had enormously increased its dairying area. The proposed storage would bring the total up to 202,000 crates if completed. There were 120 572 cratcs in store at present. ' . Butter was in the unique position of having been left free to export, and had realised groat prices, but both butter and cheese producers bad got a nasty knock when they had to provide a levy to enable townspeople to get their butter at 3d a pound cheaper. It was extraordinary bow different the townspeople and the producers looked upon this question. Nothing would convince thc_ producer that it' was" fair to take from his pocket a sum of money (in many cases £1 a week) to put it directly into another man's pocket without it going through the usual channel. The townspeople smiled and said, " good business " and to conceal the bad case they had they abused the producer for objecting. A much more serious position mitrht be in store for the butter producer if things went on as they were going—namely, no room to store his butter while awaiting shipment. This was causing a great deal of anxiety, and the dairy people were proposing to the Government that it should prohibit the slaughter of lambs to allow their butter to be stored This would only shift the loss from one set of men to another, and did not offer any real solution of the difficulty. The real solution _is more cold storage space. This is the time for action. Thousands of verv small farmers would be ruined if their year' 3 produce had to bo sacrificed. That oould be very largely obviated by "the expenditure of, say, £100.000; but the industry was worth to the dominion three million pounds. If action was decided upon the money would have to be found, and it could easily be done conjointly by the freezing companies, the dairy companies interested, and the Government. The Government could lend the money if necessary, and additional space equal to two million freight carcases might save the situation _ for all concerned. The only difficulty might be the pipes. Government would have to take action, and would have to act quickly.