SUPPLIES OF MEAT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13785, 10 September 1915, Page 7

SUPPLIES OF MEAT.

OVER £4,000,000 PAID TO VKW

ZEALAND

A SPLENTHD RECORD

(Per Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, last night. The Imperial Government Meat Supply Branch, as Mr Massey announced yesterday, has now paid out on the British Government over . £4,000,000 for New Zealand meat.

The Imperial Meat Supply Branch' begun ite work m Mew Zealand on 3rd ' March of this year, and all the meat^ on and after that date had to pass 1 through that office. The quantity ; dealt with from both islands up to 2nd ! September last has been as follows : — j Beef. Mutton. Lamb. Quarters. Carcases. Carcases. I N. Island 142,427 934,788 689,366! S. Island 51,917 485,985 1,466,246 ' * ' ' i Totals 194,341 1,420,773 2,155,612 All this meat has been inspected by ' .the veterinary staff of the Department of Agriculture, paid for on production of the shipping documents and certificates as to quality and weights at the works, and shipped to the United Kingdom.

The following returns of amounts paid ' exceed £4,000,000. They are quoted to show what districts have received th» money, paid up to the 7th September: £ s. d. Auckland ... 204,312 11 5 Poverty Bay ... ... 371,521 18 1 Hawke's Bay ... 336,479 14 10 /Taranaki ... ... 123,872 '1. 2 Wellington ... ... 1,074,251 011

Xorth Island ...£2,110,437 6 5 Marlborough ... 19,712 8 9 Nelson ... • ... ... 25.088 11 7 Canterbury ... ... 1,159,604 2 5 Otago ... ... 340,820-9 4 Southland 349,369 12 2

South Island , ;.. £1,894,055 4 3

Total ... ■ .:.- £4,004,492 10 8 The prices paid at per pound vary according to quality of the meat, but thoFo for first special order, a prime quality, are given as a guide as follows : —Mutton : Wethers 4J,d, ewes 4d, legs sid; lamby special s§d, frosts sid ; beef, ox 4|d, cow 4id and 3J|d. It is estimated that, the quantity of meat remaining m store m New Zealand at the end. of the month will be 646,000 freight carcases of 601 b, a convenient way of calculating quantities of beef, mutton, and lamb for shipping purposes. On 2nd September the quantity m, store awaiting shipment was 1,500,000 carcases. Incidentally, the value of the animal product exports j independently of dairy, 'produce, for a recent normal year is. over £14,500,000, made up as follows- (£IOOV omitted)': —

Frozen meat . . . V . . . 4,500,000 Preserved meat ... 107,000 Tallow ... ... v .... 663,000 Salt pork and beef ■ . . . 11,000 Bacon and hams ... s^ooo Sheepskins .:.-'.!. S0O.0O0) Hides :■■■ ... .V... — ,261,000 iSausago skins ... ... 93,000 Leather- ...'... 312,000 Sundries ... ...... 79,000 Wool t . .... 8,005,000 total .... ... ...£14,556,000

Shortage of ships with insulated space for a time hampered the export trade, but m April this^year the Imperial Government requisitioned all insulated space on ships usually, trading to Aus-. .tralia and New Zealand. V A very large quantity of meat had been sent away m 47 boats, however, before that step was taken, and this was. all tho independent work of the. shipping • companies. The "commandeering" of insulated space on British steamers; once Accomplished, required highly skilled knowledge to give effect to. That knowledge the British Government found *m the shipowners engaged m the refrigerating cargo trade of Australasia and South America.

The overseas shipowners" committee was sbt up, and simultaneously an overseas shipowners' committee was set np m New/ Zealand: 'The dwty of the-for-mer .Js ,to furnish and allocate the tonnage*, and that of the latter is to ad■vise London what tonnage New Zealand requires ahd to allocate the space available iii the vessels provided. This work has been ;eWried out with tlie least possible friction- considering the natural keenness of every exporter to secure as much space, as he can get for himself.

Lastly, and most important of all, comes "the Royal Navy. But for its watchfulness exercised m the Pa-cine and Indian Ocean >ahd the • Atlantic, instead of two meat-laden steamers only being destroyed by - the enemy — viz. , the Kaipara,, and the Tokomaru-— out of severity or eighty ships that left New Zealand, y there would -probably have been not' more than half-a-dpzeri that would have reached .Ijondori or any other British port, even, if,, their owners had had the hardihbod to send them a.way froih New Zealand at all. But for the Navy, the great , steamers would have been where the German merchant fleet still afloat now i?— tied up.