FROZEN MEAT TRADE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 29

FROZEN MEAT TRADE

“N.Z. UNCHALLENGED” AUSTRALIANS URGED TO “WAKE UP” “Australia cannot compete outside of her own shores in the field of secondary industries, and if she loses her markets for her primary products hexposition will be well nigh hopeless,” said Mr. J. T. Keane, chairman of the Royal Commission on the freezing works of the State, in a recent address at the Bendigo Chamber of Commerce Club on “The Frozen Meat Trade of Victoria and New Zealand.” Mr. Keane said that the area of New Zealand was 104,470 squai-e miles. Vic-, toi-ia contained 87,884 square miles, but, including the Riverina, the area was appi-oximately equal to the ai-ea of New Zealand. At the inception of freezing works New* Zealand had just on 13,000,000 sheep, but to-day the number was about 26,000,000. In 18S1 Victoria had 11,000,000 sheep, and the Riverina about 4,000,000. To-day Victoria had 16,000,000, and the Riverina about 7,000,000. The export figures showed that New Zealand from 1010 to 1926 exported 59,000,000 carcases of lamb and 43,000,000 carcases of mutton, or 102,000,000 carcases in all. Victoria in the same period exported ! 14.000,000 carcases of lamb and 8,500,000 carcases of mutton, making 22,500,000 in all. New Zealand had distanced not merely Victoria and the Riverina, but the whole of Austi-alia. Further, since 1921, New Zealand lamb had avei-aged in the Smithfield market Id a lb more than Victorian lamb, while Dominion mutton had averaged lid a lb more. It may be said, added Mr. Keane, that New Zealand had specialised in meat,, while Victoria and the Riverina had concentrated more upon wool, but from authentic figures the wool returns of New Zealand were considerably higher than those of Victoria and the Riverina together. The New Zealand wool, howevei-, was mostly crossbred. Australia was primarily a woolgrowing country, eminently suited for the rearing and development of highly profitable merino and other fine-wooled-sheep. In the matter of pastures and feeding the growers of. New Zealand had set an example to Australia. They had specialised in the cultivation of artificial pastures. The statesmen of New Zealand had i-ealised that the success of a youngcountry depended in the first place upon the development of its primary industries, and they had encoui-aged the primary industries by helpful legislation and supervision. The Dominion held unchallenged supremacy in the meat ti-ade in respect of frozen mutton and lamb. Australia had been relegated into a secondax-y position both in respect of numbers and quality, and unless Australians woke up they might he put even further back. “The South American States have already driven our frozen beef out of the English markets,” said Mr. Keane. “We must not lose sight of the fact that they are every year becoming more serious competitors in the lamb •and mutton trade.”