AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE MARKS BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 7

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE MARKS BILL.

\From Our Own Coerespondent. ) London, April 2. During the debate on Mr Mildmay's Agricultural Produce Marks Bill one of the speakers (Sir A. Acland-Hood) was reported to have said : •• A very large proport'on of foreign and colonial cheese is adulterated with fat and even more adulterating compounds." Oa reading this the New Zealand Agent-general wrote to The Times as follows :— " As the export from New Zealand to London is now large enough to be of much importance to the colony, would you permit me to very definitely say that Sir A. Acland-Hood has do justification so far as New Zealand is concerned. The greatest care is taken there to ensure the exportation of a really good article, and the factory' owners and Government alike are fully alive both to the value of the English market and tha folly, of jeopardising their position there by carelessness or fraud. I believe this to be true ateo of the other Australasian colonies."

The general opinion of experts a« to the probable effects of this Produce Marks Bill seems to ba that it will be decidedly beneficial to New Zealand produce, but aa decidedly adverse to the interests of British farmers. I had a conversation with Mr B. Montague Nelson yesterday on the subject, and ha expressed his opinion very strongly. "It will be a capital thing for us," ho said, " because it will show people generally how much of the excellent

mutton they have been eating, under the impression that it was English, Scotch, or Wolsh, actually came from New Zealand. When they fiud that New Zeahud meat ia really so good, and that they have been eating it without being aware of the fact, you may be sure they will thenceforward object to paying 2d or 3d per lb mote for Home-grown me&t, which is in no resp'ci; superior, and will insist on still being supplied with the cheaper meat;, which 'their own experience has proved to then to be so good. This, you see, will have tin effect of increasing the demand for New Zev land meat, aud of decreasing the demand foi Home-grown mutton. Ib is a very curiom thing," Mr Nelson went on to say, "that tin champions of the British farmer should have selected for the subject of their efforts on hi! behalf aV>out tho only produ.t whioh lm thoroughly kepb up its price. British mutton is just as dear as ever it was, or nearly so, and certainly tha British farmer has no ueerl of any protective measures in this respect. The effect of thia bill, if it passes into law, will certainly be in one sense protectire, but the protection will be afforded to the colonial produce and not to British mest. It is strauge that the promotirfl of the bill apparently failed to perceive this, but it is unqu- stionably the fact." "Of course," added Mr Nelsou, smiling, " when I Bay this to those who aro in favour of the bill, as in honesty I am bound to do whoa they ask me for my conscientious opinion, they merely laugh at me, and say with a sneer, ' Oh, yes, we understand all about that. As a matter of courne you say so, but we know batter. 1 So I merely shrug my shoulders and let them have their own way ; but if they carry the bill they will find I am right." On the other hand Mr Richard Keele, the experienced manager of the'O.G. and D. Cona« pany'a frozen meat department, leems to differ in some respects from Mr Nelson on this head. His view is that the bill, if it becomes law, will ba prejudicial both to the colonial producer aud to the British grower, because it will cause heavy expense all round, and in this way will be disadvantageoua to the meat trade generally, the frozen meat tr*de included. Mr 8. Borthwick, the well-known Sroithfield dealer, takes more the view of Mr Montague Nelson, holding that the measure is more likely ta do good than harm to the colonial producer, or at any rate that it will not hurt him. He is convinced it will be of no service to the British farmer, but he is still more firmly convinced that it will prove au unmitigated nuisance to the British butcher, especially if carried out in a vexatious way by fidgety inspectors.