NEW ZEALAND EGGS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1698, 14 March 1913, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND EGGS.

THE CONSIGNMENT TO LONDON. The following extract is from tho London "Star" of January 31 last:—"Eggs havo engaged tho attention of tho New Zealand Government, anil their first experimental consignment of 30,000 havo just arrived in London by the s.s. Kotonia. from Dunedin. To the unsophisticated, eeven weeks is a long time for an egg to remain uneaten. This is exactly the time the New Zealand eggs have taken to be laid, shipped', and eaten on English breakfast tables. But' this period in tho edible life of a preserved egg is a small chapter. "'A quantity of eggs aro actually being offered,''on' tho market now which were being placed in cold sitoro last April. Their flavour cannot bo the same as that of a newly-laid ogg; of course there is a time-limit to tho best laid egg. The glycerined, lime-pickled, and sealed processes of preservation do much to extend the limit. Tho sealed process is tho latest ; it renders tho eggs poreless and immune. Thoro are dealers, however, who really expect too much from tho most deserving egg. The/majority of cold store eggs which arc put' away during tho months of April, May, and, June, and tho summer months, are oiferat on the market and sold as fresh eggs.; Legitimate egg importers and merchants only recently -held a protest meeting. '"Until tho Government, tako steps to prevent this fraud, the British consumer will never bo any better off after April and May,' declared a merchant to a 'Star' man to-day. "Messrs. Henry A. Lane and Co., Ltd., 'l'ooley Street, were tho importers. Their quality was flue, and had tlw ogg market not been eo unsettled and the demand poor they would havo realised more than the prico of Bs. net, declared a representative of the firm.' They were purchased bv a firm who do a fairly largo trade in English eggs. The New Zealand Government' aro taking every caro with ■ the farmers oil tho other side, and are nursing tliein with a view to doing a larger export trade in the future. Exportation of eggs from Australia and Canada to this country has not been officially fostered by tho respective Governments. • "There have been very few Australian eggs on the London market during the last few years; Eight to ten years ago Canada shipped a considerable quantity of lx>th fresh and glycerined, but' .her egg trade hero is now also languishing grievously. Tho English supply is, of course, small compared with consumption, and NewZealand has good prospect with her supplies. She mar wrest from Russia some share of her mighty egg trade, consisting during the summer months of ten thousand cases weekly to London alone."