THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2675, 21 June 1905, Page 20

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

It is to be hoped that the able paper on the frozen meal industry which was read by Mr Gilbert Anderson under the auspices of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society on Thursday afternoon will be widely studied. Those who had the pleasure of listening to it will, we are sure, agree that no more instructive examination of the position and prospects) of the trade has been offered to the public for many years. Mr Anderson, as the possessor of one of the master minds in, the colonial control of the industry at the present lime, naturally finds cause for solid gratification in its remarkable growth and in the concomitant advantages which the community has enjoyed; and he refers with particular satisfaction to the fact that while the colony has, since the inauguration of the industry, exported nearly 48 millions of carcases of frozen mutton, the flocks are now more than 50 per cent, greater than they were when the killing of sheep for export was started. We have not been able to view the reduction in the flocks in recent years with the unconcern which Mr Anderson manifests. We have been disposed to fear that the sheep returns argued that there had been an over-exportation of ewe lambs, but we are delighted to give every prominence and respect to the contrary opinion when it is confidently advanced on the authority of Mr Anderson. He has, he tells us, no apprehensions on the subject : he does not think at all that the colony is exporting more than it is warranted in doing. We hope that the opinion he expresses will prove to be as reliable as, emanating from such a source, we should expect it to be. The advice which, in this connection, Mr Anderson somewhat diffidently offers to the farmers is very interest ing, and we cannot doubt that commercially it is entirely sound. As a strict matter of profitable business, lie says, it should be the aim of the small sheep *anner, whose land is worth over £8 to £10 per acre, to obtain lambs of early maturity and fattea them off for sale every year to the freezing buyer and also to fatten off his old ewes for the local market. The land of such a farmer, Mr Anderson holds, is too valuable to justify his retaining old ewes for breeding purposes, and the time he devotes to this object is sacrificed. "His land can be used more profitably for fattening, and by having a variety of fattening feed coming on of different sorts, according to the season, he can turn off all lifs stock fat, if not as lambs, then, as hoggets. Havizzg done this, he goes to the market again to replenish his ewes." In Mr Anderson's judgment, the cheaper pastoral land and that which is known as the back country should suffice to maintain the supply of ewes and store sheep, and if the runholder realises that in the fattener he has a steady customer for his ewes he will gradually work his flock into a ewe flock. The view which Mr Anderson expressed on this point was doubtless intended to be of general application, but it may with advantage be directly applied to the case of Otago in, relation to the frozen meat industry at the present time. We have frequently had occasion in these columns to deplore the waning importance of the frozen meat trade as an. export trade in this, the district to which the distinction attaches of having initiated the industry. The farmers have in too many instances acted as though their metier was to grow store sheep for sale for fattening in Canterbury. And the consequence has been that the exports of frozen, meat from Canterbury have been expanded at the* expense of Otago, and that the exports from Otago have dwindled almost into insignificance. From the whole colony, the figures quoted by Mr Anderson show, the export last year represented nearly 22 per cent, of the total number of sheep in New Zealand. The export from Canterbury represented 35 per cent, of the flocks in that district, but the export from Otago "was only 8 per cent, of the number of sheep in this province. These figures imply a distinct reproach to this district. The matter haSj in its bearing upon, llie question

of the trade of the port of Otago, a wide, public aspect, to which we need not now specially refer. The argumenlum ad honainem may probably be more usefully employed. Why are Otago farmers content to sell their sheep as stores or as half-fat to be finished off on Canterbury pastures for freezing purposes. We have been told that the climate and pasture of Canterbury are more favourable for fattening than, those of Otago are. But the assurance has always failed to carry conviction. It must be regarded as an excuse rather than as an explanation. Clearly, if fanners in Southland are able to fatten sheep for export, it would be a very strange thing if it was beyond the power of Otago farmers to fatten their stock. Mr Anderson expresses the opinion that the sheep fattened in Otago should at least bear as large a proportion to the total flocks of the district as the New Zealand exports bear to the colonial flocks — namely, 21.79 per cent. And if the cultivation of feed. — upon which point Mr Anderson has offered numerous hints that should prove exceedingly valuable — is systematically undertaken, we believe that the increase of the output to the figure mentioned can really be effected without much difficulty. But there must be systematic feeding. That is essential. We may mention for the sake of illustration, as we are permitted to do, the experience of a. Central Otago fanner. Upon an area of 600 acres under grass, of which 300 acres are under irrigation, Mr John Wilson, of Downshire Farm, Ophir, has 1 this year fattened 1200 lambs of his own breeding and has bought in and fattened 300 store lambs, making 1500 lambs for export of prime good quality, and he has fattened 300 cull dry ewes which have been sold for the local market, while at the present time 1000 head are being fattened on the land. This fact is doubly suggestive. It furnishes an additional proof of the fertility of the land in Central Otago when it receives the benefit of irrigation, and it destroys the fiction that it is impossible to fatten stock for export in Otago. What Mr Wilson has done hundreds of farmers in Otago are capable of doing. What is, however, the fact? We are assured by the authorities in control of the works at Burnside that Mr Wilson has, from his 600acre area of fattening land, been responsible this year for the supply of one-twentieth of the surplus stock available for export received at those works from the district roughly bounded by Palmerston on the north and by Gore on the south. Further, we are informed that the number of

fat sheep produced within these limits that have not been handled at Burnside is so trifling that it does not affect the figures. With a few honourable exceptions, the fanners have adhered to their practice of growing sheep for sale to Canterbury fatteners. They have found it profitable enough in the past, and they are apparently content to stick to it, comfortably relying upon its continuing to yield then a handsome return. It is, however, a hand-to-mouth business, and a dry season in Canterbury would inevitably be attended with temporary disaster to those who depend upon the sale of their sheep for fattening there. "The profitable part of the freezing industry," Mr Anderson says, "is undoubtedly the growing of fat lambs. It gives the farmer a quick return and gives him the best use of his land." The majority of the Otago farmers have either not yet realised this or the}' have forgotten it. They are now plainly told that in parting with their stock as stores they are losing the large future profits. As Mr Anderson puts it, they are eagerly accepting the nimble ninepence and blissfully ignoring the prospect of securing half-crowns. The moral is so obvious that it is unnecessary to point it. The merchants of Dunedin have been freely censured for neglecting to exert themselves more thoroughly to preserve the trade of the port. But the merchants are not wholly to blame: the fanners must accept their share of the responsibility. Let them act on Mr Anderson's advice, — let them fatten their own stock for export, as they can do if they have a mind for it — let them, as the result, secure profits which are at present slipping away from tkem. and a revival in the trade

of the port, in which all sections of the community ar-e interested, will be one of the earliest effects.