LAMB KILLINGS SHOW BIG RISE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 65, 18 March 1931, Page 8

LAMB KILLINGS SHOW BIG RISE.

WORK NOW EASING OFF AT FREEZING COMPANIES

Substantial increases are again shown in the killings in both the North and South Islands fpr the period from October 1 until February 28. The aggregate increase in the number of sheep and lambs killed, in spite of the adverse conditions, was 884,749. Mr H. C. Revell, secretary of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ and Slaughtermen’s Union, who supplied the figures, was unable to account for the increase. The increase in the North Island is made up as follows: Wethers, 33,015; ewes, 45-813; lambs, 379,076. In the South Island the increase has been entirely in lambs, of which 508,807 more than last year have passed through the slaughtermen’s hands. Wethers have fallen off by 24,838, and ewes by 57,074. At present the men are working broken time, and apparently work in the north is also easing off, for there has been recently a big influx of slaughtermen from the North Island in search of work. Most of them have been disappointed as there has been a surplus of men this year. It was not possible to forecast the amount of work which would be offering here from now on, but Mr Revell stated that under ordinary circumstances there should be another two months’ work. There had been a better tone about Smithfield market this year, he said, and with normal conditions the killings in New Zealand would have been much larger.