FROZEN MEAT.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 February 1912, Page 4

FROZEN MEAT.

A PLEA FOE ITS IMPORTATION

INTO FRANCE.

The following is an excerpt from a speech made by the Mayor of Roubaix, France, in support of a removal of the restrictions against the importation of frozen meat into France—a speech which was no doubt induced by the effectire display of New Zealand frozen meat by the Government at the Roubaix Exposition:— " There exists in the Customs laws of France a summary • clause regulating the introduction of meat, which prohibits its transportation from occupying a, period exceeding a few days. This clause provides that each carcase shall contain its lungs and entrails,, so that the VetinaryJ Inspectors may exercise a control over the entry into France. The gates of France are thus altogether closed against the introduction of those meats killed (either in the Argentine Kepublic, New Zealand, Austria Hungary, Russia, or any other European country. I. " "We cannot disguise the fact that the working~classes wish to provide themselves with wholesome meat at normal price, and we are exceedingly surprised to be deprived of a source of provision which, thanks to the advance of science and the exceptional guarantees given by the sanitary requirements of the Argentine Eepublic and New Zealand, gladden the hearts of the English housewives, without doing injury to the English farmers and breeders, since the increase in the consumption of fresh meat in that country has not ceased to grow. " The overseas countries offer to Europe unrivalled flocks, which are still capable of largo development. Why should England alone have the benefit of this paradise of meat ? I do not ask for a reduction of the Customs duties. T ask you not to argue on the clausos, professedly hygienic, but in reality prohibitive, to deprive France of the liberty of supplying herself with provisions. I ask the Conseil General dv Nord to repeal the articles which enforce the retention of the viscera and lungs, and to apply the same rules as those which regulate the supply of the English markets, where during the last ten years fifty ■ millions of oversea carcases have been consumed, without injury to the health of the consumers. "