FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3380, 25 December 1918, Page 11

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER

WINTER MEAT CAMPAIGN. FREEZING HOME SUPPLIES. (Fhoii Otjh Special Coehespondent.) - LONDON, October 15. On the eve of what is confidently regarded as the last winter of the Great War the meat food situation in Great Britain is one for which those in authority are preparing the public for a final but strenuous struggle throueh. The Food Controller has said that these last months of- the war may not by any means prove the last months of international food difficulty, and the protents certainly go some way to bear out his words. FREIGHTING AND RATIONING. In the last two or three years those in meat circles have each autumn waited impatiently for the annual solution of the great meat transport problem from New Zealand. The sadly diverted refrigerated fleets have each year by some means or other been scraped together and got across to the Dominion just in time to save the situation. This year the trade and the public are asked to act independently of this delayed arrival. No one in meat circles is flunking that New Zealand is going to be left in the lurch altogether, for that would be disastrous. In fact, even now, it is expected, refrigerated bottoms are making their way to pick up the six million or so freight carcases said to be bulging the Dominion stores. EKING OUT HOME SUPPLIES. , But the home consumer is peremptorily ordered to be under no delusions that any meat from this or other distant sources will be at his call in the early montho of next year, and it is clear that the Southern Hemisphere will be well in supplying the commissariat of the millions of Arr.encarts and others now sweeping back the eremy on all front*. Our home re-

sources are to be used to fill civilian stomachs at home. This is the prospect that is none too promising, and already reports of anticipated dearth of home meat noxt year are being- circulated. The Food, Controller and his lieutenants are spreading- a. campaign of economy to meet tha situation.

THE STATISTICAL POSITION. Homo supply statistics are not so bright as -they were this time last year. Tnia year's returns for England and Wales show that beef cattle have declined, the total of all cattle, 6,200,000, being a drop of 27,000 on the record total of last year. Sheep also have fallen considerably, " the ' total, 16,475,000, being 1 per cent. less than in 1917; while lambs are the lowest , since 1883. Pigs reveal a decrease of 220,000, the total being 1,697,000, or 11 per cent, less than in 1917. In view of this it is strange that some timely steps have not been taken to economise home resources as tliey increased in their autumn flow on to the market. It is said by one' authority in this connection that " the simpler procedure, if it were practicable, would be for the Ministry of Food to take over the surplus of grass-fed animals, slaughter them, and lay up the carcases in cold storage, to be drawn out as required. The comment madii on this is that "the limits to this course would bo easily reached." As« amatter of fact, those limits have been reached before ever the plan is tried, simply on account of supineness on the part of the authorities, who have dallied with the question of home moat freezing without doing anything through the space of four years to "make this practical politics. The chance .is now lost, and the .publio will be all the more likely to feel the pinch unless it is averted by some good fortune. IRISH MEAT CHILLING.

It is an interesting fact that Ireland, which is always the scene of so much political heart-burning, should be the seat of real enterprise in the more economical disposal of home meat resources. It has long been known that Irish pastures, which have in the past formed quite "an Argentine" for Great Britain's meat supplies, have not carried half of what they might in their great wealth support in the way of marketable meat animals, and now, right in the time of necessity, there is more than one undertaking afloat for converting the rather un-economical hvo cattle trado across the Irish Channel into a dead meat industry by means of organised slaughter, chilling, and by-products' utilisation on the soot on Irish soil. Drogheda. north of Dublin, is the strategic centre of the most prominent of these new ventures already launched, with half a million sterling capital, to engage in this work. Thet name of the company is the Irish Meatchilling Company (Ltd.). which has acquired extensive premises, and is constructing an abattoir for dealing with 140,000 head of cattle a year,' and also a tannery to handle 1000 hides per week. Dublin is not behind in the case. A company with large capital at its disposal is stated to be in course of formation. The enterprise, which is receiving satisfactory encouragement, will, it is expected, take practical shape shortly, and business will begin with every prospect of success. Belfast is up and doing in a not less degree, .and an interesting rumour is current that all four enterprises may not improbably amalgamate before long, and thus link up the north with the south to th© estimated saving of some hundreds of thousands annuay* AFTER-WAR PROSPECTS. The close of the. war may be expected to give an enormous impetus to this bettetf exploitation of Irish meat resources, which will be played off by those interested the Meat Trust idea, which has latelyTSunk very deeply into the minds of those at home owing to the great publicity given to the findings of the United States Federal Trade Commission. It is e'ertainy a great advance in publio handling of this international menace to hear such a one as Major Astor, M.P., tho Parliamentary Secretary of the British Food _ Ministry, - saving: ""Anxiety is felt by British farmers at the reduction of our 'herds. They seo themselves at the end of tho war with depleted live stock, apparently at the mercy of the Meat Trust. The danger is obvious. It is a danger not only to the British farmer, but to the European consumer. It is a danger faced by the French, whose herds have been reduced by nearlv 20 per cent, during the war; and by the Italians, who claim to have lost over 20 per cent, of their cattle during the German drive of 1917. It is a danger, too. to every European neutral, since their herds have been reduced more than cur own. It is feared that we are becoming increasingly dependent on America, and that when tho war ends that country mav dominate the market." By the way, I hear that there is shortly to be presented to President Wilson by the. > United States Federal Trade Commission a second lengthy report supporting its charges r gainst tho meat packers—an indictment, it

must be remembered, which has not yet been disproved by any single piece- of counter-evidence.:"