The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1916. FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 73, 2 March 1916, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1916 . FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

The abnormality of the conditions that prevailed during the year is, as was to be expected, the note which is most prominently struck in the reviews of the frozen meat trade for 1915, the Otago Daily Tnnes points out. As the Colonial Consignment and Distributing Company concisely puts it in its report, the outstanding factor which placed business lor the year on an entirely different plan* from theretofore was the fact that the trade, with comparatively small exceptions, was for the greater part ol the year under Government control. Under no other system could the Imperial Government have effectively en-

sured the maintenance of the necessary supplies for the British army in the field and have contributed in an important degree also to the feeding of the French army and, more recently of the- Italian army. The quantities of frozen meat that wore directed to France and Italy during the year are estimated at over LSOY 000 tons, and inasmuch as almost the whole of this meat was used lor tin

armies on active service l , it is manifest," Messrs \V. Weddel and Co. ohservo in their review, "that frozen meat must have secured fi first-class advertisement, not only in France and Italy, hut in other countries where hitherto it had heen practically unknown." The surplus meat not utilised to meet the requirements of the Allied forces was placed on the market in Great Britain in a way that was designed to prevent speculation an<' any undue increase in price's. The arrangement under which the marketing of this surplus was effected evoked

some criticism, but, while it is true ! that the meat was not cheapened in I price to the consumer, the plan that i was adopted had very distinct merits. Tlic Times also says thai two points | of interest to New Zealand are to ho noted. The shortage of refrigerated tonnage, which caused a good deal of i anxiety at tile time and necessitated an interruption in the killing for ex--1 port, \\a n „t iin unmixed evil. ••One ■'.ati-factory result of the delays in the shipping," Messrs Weddel and Co. state i "was the greatly improved disl tribution of supplies over the twelve .months." "With similar distribution I in normal times, storage expenses in | England would be saved, prices could he better regulated, and the products oi Nc-w Zealand kept before c< risiimers las continuously and advantageously as is the case with Argentine meats. Both Messrs Weddel and Co. and the Colonial Consignment and Distributing Company express concern over tile reduction of 350,000 in the number of breeding ewes in New Zealand as disclosed by the last stock census. The importance of maintaining the flocks of the Dominion is obvious and it would be a short-sighted policy which permitted an undue depletion of the breeding ewes. ■mil ——M————