A NEW MARKET FOR MEAT.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13381, 2 April 1912, Page 8

A NEW MARKET FOR MEAT.

Dr Hogs, who has ji^t returned to iuvoroargi.l after a round-thr-workt tour, had something interesting to say to » "Southland Times" rcpon-or on a problem which is at present troubling the. Continent a good deal: how/bo supply moat to the people at a price within roach of tho working man. Dr Hogg spent some time in Vianna, and he had the opportunity of studying the methods of living and social problems of the people there, and the problems are many. How do these people live,, practically without meat? The average wa i»e of the unskilled workman is three kronen (2s 6d) a day, 15s a week, Beer is sdt down by thct Austrian butcher at something approaching 4s a pound. Mutton is a litt'.c cheaper, but not much. It can bo imagined how much meat tho average Austrian cau supply to his wife and family of four or five childcrn. Meat, say the medical *&ithoriticvs, is a n.'ecessary'- J:or\ thei health and growth of a ordinary .man. Dr Hogg said that there were evidences in the1" hospitals of semi-starvation among tho patients. The nearest thing "to meat the people can get is perhaps a few bones for stewing, and even these are dear enough. Where could supplies come from? Hungary? Yes, they could, but the relation^ between Austria .and Hungary are rather peculiar, even strained. It is only the. strong character of the Emperor Franz Josef which holds Ihe two countries in any way together. There is a deep feeling of animosity between them. The Hungarian meat merchants are solid in their determination not to alow supplies of moat to go into Austria except at a big price, and it was partly thorough their action that dear food^ riots of last year were caused. Vienna, has. a population bordering on 3,000,000, and in the whole of Austria there aro 60,000,000 people. What a market! And New Zealand is the slowest country in the world to see.the opportunity. Argentina is anxious to secure a footing for opening up a huge frozen meat with the Austrian Government and tho preliminary arrangements have so far been satisfactory. Australia, coming; in next, has reached tho stage of advertising its meat in the big newspapers of Vienna, but that is all. New Zealand has done nothing.

Thp "Wonganui Herald" points out that it is fair to state that New Zealand has not been so unmindful of its interests as Dr. Hogg implies. As a matter of fact, Sir William Hall-Jones (the Dominion High Commissioner) is keeping a watchful eye on tho foreign markets, and has striven to induce Continental Governments to. send their inspectors to examine and report on on tho conditions obtaining in the exoort meat trade in New Zealand, while Homo firms interested in developing the colonial meat trade have sent letters to the nross of Germany and Austria advocating the- purchase of tho colonial article.