Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE. MONDAY. JANUARY 19, 1903. MEAT-EATERS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9643, 19 January 1903, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE. MONDAY. JANUARY 19, 1903. MEAT-EATERS.

In the latest issue of his useful little publication, "The Seven Colonies of Australasia," Mr Coghlan, the eminent statistician of the Commonwealth, shows that Australasians, and incidentally New Zetilanders, continue to live remarkably well, retaining their position as the champion meat consumers among civilised peoples. It is probably the plenitude of meat m these colonies that leads to so great a consumption, though with the development of the freezing industry and Lite immense demands that are made upon the country for "Prime Canterbury" it is by no means certain that our colonists are favored with anything like the best qualities for their own consumption. Nor are the prices of mwtt m, colonial cities so much cheaper than they are m iMigland. Perhaps, explains «vi Australian contemporary, the people have inherited from the mutton and dumper period tim carnivorous inclination whicli to-day they satisfy to a degree that makes them remarkable m thai respect. Here is tlie comparative return of annual mea.t consumption per inhabitant m the world's diie! countries put forward by Mr Cogh-lii-n:— Great Britain, 1091 b; France, 771 b ; Germany, 64Lb ; Russia, 511 b ; Austria, 611 b; Italy. 261 b; Spain, 711 b; Belgium, 651h; Holland, 571 b; Sweden, 621 b; Norway, 781 b; Denmark, 641 b; Switzerland, 621 b; United States, 1501 b; Canada, 901 b; Australasia. 2641 b. Canada is, m most of its parts, a very cold country where, according to the generally held scientific belief, a meat diet could be largely used with advantage ; it is also «• country which produces cattle and sheep abundantly, yet our consumption of meat is almost three times as much per head ;>s that of the Canadians, though we inhabit a land whose climate has been held to render a heavy consumption of m«it unnecessary, if not actually injurious. The United States is a country where meat is grown for export on a great scale, and where, except occasionally under the manipulation of the trusts, the supply is plentiful and reasonable as to prices. The people are. perhaps, tlie most physically active and mentally vigorous anywhere to be found. The strenuous manner m which national industry is carried on bespeaks a community whose need for nitrogenous food .should be very great. Yet they consume per head but a little more than half the quantity of meat used m Australasia. The German people, again, are conspicuous as one of the strong, resolute, resourceful divisions of the human, family, aad "the climate of their country is sufficiently cold to war7<ant the use of a great deal of nitrogenous food. Yet we eat over four times as -much meat as the Germans. If, as most scientific authorities hold, it is inimical to the best development of a people living under warm climatic conditions to eat much meat., surely we may look for some evidence of degeneration amongst Australasians ; but where is it to be found? Our offence, admits the Sydney Telegraph, has been rank ; m defiance of the thermometer we have carved deeply of generous joints ; we have loaded our plates with stesiiks and chops morning, noon, and night. We have made the flesh of animals our chief food m spite of warnings m books. We have 'qualified ourselves to become a frightful example before mankind of a devotion to the fleshpots which has never been curried to such extremity by a whole people. The figures put m by Mr Coghlan do not. m his compart ive treatment, show anything like the carnivorous excesses of our effective male workers. The great majority of women eat very little mwut.; most children, during the first seven or eight years of life, practically none. The share of both, as Appearing m per capita estimates, is taken by the young men and adult males of the community, many of whom individually consume at least double the quantity which Ma- Coghlan sets down as the national per capita average. Why, then, lias nothing m the form of physicaJ retribution visited them? Their * strength and general capacity remains apparently undiminished. their health seemingly uninip;ured, m the ripe third generation of their existence as the modern beef-eaters. In an interview published m Melbourne, Dr. Givsswell, the chairman of the Public Health Board, advances a theory m explatuition of tlie seeming anomaly, which tells against the general belief on the subject. Dr. Gresswell's idea is that the extent to which men are exposed to sun-lig-lii and hea.f consequent upon our latitude and clear skies, sets tlie march of their lives at a faster pace than, tliat for which the "muflled drums" beat m colder and greyer lands. "Here m this sunny elhnate^ with increased vital activities, t-hf average inhabitant derives advantages from a more hghly nitrogenous diet m doing the extra- work imposed upq-n him," says^Dr. Gresswell. ''He works at higher pressure, as it were, than the inhabitants of less sunny laauls. He consequently develops greater energy and capacity physically, and, on the average, also mentally. In short lie lives his life more strenuously and more fully, and if it be said thai he thereby wears himself out more quickly than liis English brother, I do not know that I am prepared to contradict the statement To sum up I am personally of opinion that a meat diet develops higher physical and mental qualities than any other." That opinion j accords with the. general view of Scientific thought on this subject, save for the reservation that m warm climates ni.tro : genous foods should be reduced lest they drive the human machine too fast arid produce derangement of its parts. Dr. Gresswell thinks that the extra strain put upon it by the heart-stimulation of our strong sunlight calls for extra fuel, and that meat best supplies this requirement. If that is a correct judgment, there is some jus.tificti.tion for a consumption of nitrogenous foods, which, compared with then- use m other countries, is little short of amazing.