N.Z. MEAT AND THE WAR OFFICE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3759, 5 March 1907, Page 2

N.Z. MEAT AND THE WAR OFFICE.

The news that the Imperial War Office, in inviting foreign tenders for meat, ; struck put the proviso that it must be either from Australia or New Zealand, isn’t a very serious matter, at least for New Zealand. It is of course patent to New Zealanders that the war office requirements are so vast and the necessity for quick supply and cheapness of price so paramount that New Zealand could not fill an Order quickly enough and the war office might easily be left without supplies. There is no question that New Zealand and Australian tinned meats are the best the ; world supplies. This was proved in the South African war, where tremendous quantities of tinned meat were used —and wasted. Soldiers always “ went for ” the colonial article, and if possible passed the American canned death. - New Zealand has all she can do at the present time to keep the Home market stocked with frozen meat. In fact there is so much frantic haste to stock the market that New Zealanders are rather left in the lurch, have to pay too high a price for their chop or steak and have to take the worst quality at that. New Zealand has no real need of army tinned meat -contracts. The army at Home, however, consumes a very large amount of good New Zealand frozen mutton and a lot of Australian beef, and this colony can get rid of all the meat she can grow as long as New Zealand is above the water. The main thing in regard to the Home meat market is for New Zedland growers to see that, the sheep that is labelled “ Prime Canterbury N.Z.” is in reality not a scrag from Argentine or a brokenmouthed old ewe from Kent sent to London to saye burial expenses.