EXPORT OF MEAT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2376, 4 February 1915, Page 7

EXPORT OF MEAT

EFFORTS OF THE GOVERNMENT. The Prime Minister has made arrangements with harbour boards to facilitate the working of overtime on all vessels leading refrigerated cargo in order to give the boats the most rapid dlspateh possible. Absolutely nothing is being left undone to obtain a sufficient number of ships to carry our produce, Mr. ilassey informed 1 a Dominion reporter yesterday. . , Unfortunately it is a fact, however, that the short supply of 6hips is being felt by freezing companies, whose storage accommodation is likely to be sorely taxed before the end of the season. Of course'the season has been an abnormally heavy one, owing to a variety of causes, and' this has made the task of handling otir exports of meat an exceptionally difficult one. As the Prime Minister has stated, everything possible has been done, and is being •done, to secure ships, but the Government cannot achieve the impossible. Our seaeon, because it has been an early one, may probably close early, and in April or May the companies- should be given relief by the arrival of , more steamers. The less of the Tokomaru is a serious one, and the effect of the fire on the Nairnshiro is sure to delay her arrival on the Now Zealand coast for her next load. "But," as. a representative of a meat exporting firm said to a Dominion reporter yesterday, "we ought to be thankful that we are doing so well, when we consider that we are in the middle of the biggest war the world has over known. No other country that I know of is getting along as comfortably as we are. We certainly could not have got" our goods away if we had been a German colony."