FROZEN MEAT AND PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2030, 15 March 1907, Page 4

FROZEN MEAT AND PREFERENTIAL TRADE.

(Auckland Star.) Wo are glad to soo that our High Commissioner, in conjunction with his Now South Wales collouguo, is making a vigorous effort to bring colonial frozon moat under tho notice of tho Imperial authorities. If things wore as they should ho, tho War Office contracts should afford a splendid permanent opening for our frozen heel and mutton; and nothing stands in our way hut vague popular prejudice and tho conservatism of British officialdom. Quito apart from any theory about tho valuo of Imporiul Reciprocity, wo venture to say that no other Power able to draw upon its own dependencies for food supplies would ho willing to give its custom to foreigners. But all that tho War Olfico will do for us in this direction just now is to lot us talco our chance with tho rest, and to “hope” that the contracts will come to us. Ono might fairly argue that if tho Imperial Government has any sound roason for such a hope, it should suroly ho worth a little exertion to make it an accomplished fact. But as mattors stand at present, it scorns Hiat wo must depend upon our own oxortions and upon our official representatives at Homo to clear away the barriers that now obstruct the development of tho Empiro’s trade and limit our own share in it.

Happily wo can fairly claim that tho old prejudice against colonial frozon meat as an article of diet is rapidly dying out at Homo. Some years ago an article written by our Agent-General appeared in the Hospital, giving tho results of a series of careful experiments conducted by an eminent hygienic authority, which proved conclusively that frozen mutton from Now Zealand and Australia is at least equal in nutritive qualities to the best English or Welsh. Dr. Rideal lias recently repeated his tests, and his figures, as quoted in Messrs Woddel’s annual report oil tho frozen moat trade, fully confirm the opinions that ho had previously expressed. In tho original Hospital tests a piece of New Zealand mutton originally weighing eight ounces loss than an English joint, weighed only two ounces less when cooked, thus gaining 6 ounces, or over 5 per cent, in weight on its arrival. Tho proportion of meat suitable for hospital diet was 4 per cent, greater in tho New Zealand joint than tho English; and whilo tho amount of bone and wasto was noarly equal in tho two eases, tlireo ounces more dripping were saved from tlio New Zealand joint than the English, and only II ounce less gravy, though the New Zoaland joint was originally eight ounces less than the English. The more recent tests, as we have said, corroborate these figures in every particular. In hone and waste Australasian lamb compares more than favorably with Welsh, and it does not lose nearly so much in cooking. Australian mutton comes even hotter out of the comparison with English mutton, giving weight for weight, about 30 per cent, less waste in cooking, providing a larger quantity, of tho best quality of meat, and producing four times as much gravy. It appears to us that these figures form the best advertisement that colonial frozen moat has ever received, and we liopo that our representatives at Homo will endeavor to impress them forcibly upon tho notice of the British public. When once Australasian frozen meat becomes a really popular article of diet in tho Old World, our export trade will certainly expand at an unprecedented rate. But by far the greatest possibilities of the trade are involved in the prospects of Imperial Reciprocity. Wo have repeatedly pointed out that preferential trade is not a device invented by the colonies for tlio purpose of enabling us to make profit out of England’s needs. But at the same time we cannot be blind to our own material interests, and there can .he no doubt that if even under existing conditions the Imperial authorities were to promote tho sale of our staple exports at Homo we would gain largely thereby ; British preference for colonial meat, however small it might he, would confer an immense boon upon the colonial producer by securing the Home market for us without in any way necessarily raising the cost of living to-the British consumer. Wo need not go into this complicated question just now, but' we may refer briefly to an important aspect of tho groat problem of preferential trade to which reference was made two days ago at a meeting of tho British Associated Chambers of Commerce. The sjieakor pointed out that if Canada and tho other colonies found it impossible to induce England to respond to their offers of preferential treatment, their material interests would inevitably drive them in the direction of commercial agreements will other nations willing to grant the advantages that England lias persistently refused them. The case of Canada and tho United States is at present the most striking instance of this danger; and the German suggestion of preference to colonial frozen meat in return for special privileges in colonial markets illustrates it in another direction. The colonies are sincerely loyal to England and to tho Imperial tradition; but tliero is always the risk that England, by studiously ignoring our protests and arguments, and obstinatoly refusing to uiodify licr own hopelessly discredited fiscal policy, may sooner or later drive some ot-lier dependencies into commercial alliances with foreign Powers; and such a step as our cable message suggests would certainly tend toward the disintegration of the Empire.