COLONIAL FROZEN MEAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1136, 25 May 1911, Page 10

COLONIAL FROZEN MEAT.

ME. KIDJIAX'S OBSERVATIONS. After a thirteen months' tour of inquiry in connection with tho meat export trade'in Canadu, tho United States, Kngland, and Continental Europe, Mr. Arthur Kidman has just returned jto Sydney imbued with the conviction that tho graz-' iug interests of Australia have excellent prospects before them. AC tho same time, he is not sanguine of new markets of any extent outside of Great Britain being opened up to the exporters of Australasia in the near future.

■ As an qxportcr of moat and other frozen produce, tho primary, object of ilr. Kidman's trip (says the Sydney "Daily Telegraph") was to push business and pave tho way for trade with new markets if possible. After touring Canada, Mr. Kidman went on to Chicago. Although. ho sees no 'immediate likelihood of the American markets being made available to Australia, Mr. Kidman looks upon the pros-ipects-generally of tho business developing in the. course, of time as decidedly '•satisfactory, as prices are much higher in Canada and the United States than they, are here, and the people want .cheaper foods. Going on to London, Mr. Kidman spent somo' timo in visiting lending centres in England and investigating the conditions surrounding the meat trade. Ho thinks there is certainly plenty of room for improvement in regard to the delivery of the meat from the ships'and in the handling of it until it reaches the market. "Nevertheless," he said, "their conditions 'in this respect arc bettor than ours on | this side. In Liverpool, for instance, the meat is almost exclusively, carried in insulated wagons from the ship to the freezing stores. That means an improvement in the -appearance of the .stuff,, and .. I : should very much like to sec the same system adopted here. It would enhance i tho appearance and condition of the meat 'on arrival in England; provided, of i course, the shipping companies did their ' part." In London, too, meat is carted from the docks to Smithfield in insulated vans.

Trade in England in Australian meat, has been on tho increase. Mr. Kidman's conviction is that tho business both 'in mutton and beef will go on expanding. Ho has not the slightest doubt about it. Tho ineat, besides commanding a greater Rile in the big centres of population, is finding its way into outlying districts. While these latter buy in a small way ias yet, the avenues for distributing tho ' meat aro all tho time widening, and are likely to continue- to do so.

Mr. Kidman visited tho chief cities of France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and he is not at all hopeful of Australia getting a footing for some time to come. "The people on the Continent want our meat," he said. "They want it badly, and arc really clamouring for if, but the agrarian interest's, aro against it, and their political representatives aro putting up a pretty strong opposition. But it is only a question of time when wo will got into one of the centres near England, say in France, and then, onco the barrier is broken down, in ■ my opinion, all the markets will be opened to us. That will bo of immense importance to Australia"." Mr. Kidman is hot inclined to attach much importance •to the fact that small .shipments of Australian mutton have this year been admitted into Switzerland. JTo regards it more or less as a.political move to pleaso the people' for tho time being, and that it cannot be taken as an indication that their markets are to be thrown open to Australia. "But," ho emphasised, "it must come; tho people will have cheaper meat." In France, he said, whero the tariff and tho.;, conditions regarding slaughtering are' absolutely prohibitive, decent mutton cannot be' obtained-..for household purposes under Is. per lb., and even inferior r|uslit,y sells at. about lfld. Australian best grades of frozen meat he regarded as equal to anything the general public could get in France.