PROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 January 1919, Page 5

PROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

HOME MEAT SUPPLIES THE PRESENT MAINSTAY. MEAT-FREEZING IN GREAT BRITAIN. (Special Correspondent Christehurch Press. LONDON, Oct. 20. "Freezing" has beTFn a much-discuss-ed word in meat circles of late. Throughout the length and breadth of the country the meat trade ha* been bandying this word for weeks past, and not only this, but farmers who have in the past treated this as something altogether foreign have been joinSng in the discussion of the question of home meat-freezing, which has been initiated by those who are pulling wires of Government arrangement of the meat Industry. Not that there is much of practical import to come out of all this, but pother in indicative of the exigences of the moment.

AUTUMN GLUT OF HOME MEAT There has been a great rush of fat live stock dn most of the cattle markets of the country. Pastoralists, seeing feed shortage ahead, and having their animals ready, have marketed them in great numbers, as they are often wofnt to do in autumn, and such lias been the rush that in some quarters animals have been returnd undisposed of. This excessive marketing is what the Government has sought to avoid, and, falling avoiding it, it has conceived measures for utilising the supplies to hand. If, by a magic wave of the wand, meat-freezing works could be established at proper centres in this country, as they are in New Zealand and Australia, it would be all in order to kill the beasts to save their lives, as the Irishman said. And so half a dozen Governmcnt'departments have been tumbling over each other to find out all aoout the feasibility of the cold stores in the various country districts tackling the duty of freezing down the ready-at-hand fat beef now on hoof in the market yards. HOME FREEZING PROBLEMS.

It is, however, by no meains all plain sailing. The cold stores 'are not handy to the places of marketing and slaughter, and if they were there are only a very few of them that have a sufficient margin of refrigerating power to enable them to cope with the stiffer task of freezing down. Then there is the lack of equipment, a difficulty hard to surmou)nt at this time; and, further, there is the great barrier of the utter impracticability of utilising in any thorough and organised way the by-products resulting from such novel process for this territory. The foregoing factors will make it evident that the likelihood of English meat-freezing is not very great, at any rate, in present circumstances; and now as we are posibly on the threshold of peace, the pressing need for such an operation as this may not recur. But, as Thave said, a number of Government departments have been hot on the scent of this inquiry; a special committee of the Ministry of Food has been entrusted with its Investigation, and in London, Birmingham, Glasgow, and" Cardiff some parcels-of meat from the slaughter house have actually been frozen down.

EATING ONE'S CAKE

Dealing with the question in the House of Commons the other day Major Astor, 'the Parliamentary Secretary, of the Ministry of Food, said there were then being frozen about 4000 beasts per week, and he hoped, tfhat jthis -number would fie increased to about double. He added the interesting fact that by about this date, the entire Forces in this country would be on fresh mea rations six days a week, while the Navy was also being given as much fresh killed meat as possible. Thus, it seems that with the imports of Dominions' and foreign meat at a standstill, \]\c whole country, or as much of it as possible, is being switched on to home supplies At this rate our live stock census mil perforce look rather different in a few months, and what would happen if there were not to bo fairly ready relief of the situation ahead one trembles to think. The Government evidently is relying on that relief being somewhere at hand round the comer. Perhaps this, as well as the , terms of armistice, is in. the hands of our good friend Foch.

AFTER THE WAR. The fact that that farmers' body entitled the Central and Associated Chambers of Agriculture affiliated itself last week to the Federation of British Industries reminds me that wo are on the threshold of that period of emerging from a state of war industry to one of peace reconstruction For the Federation in question is charged with watching the interests of industry and commerce in the reconstructive period "ahead, and that brings to one's mind the whole question of tow the British meat trade is going to come out of this war. And what about the imported meat trade, and it's sadly distorted Hnes of communication f So severely has. the business been torn aiJout by the arti-

ficiul Government methods of distribution —I am by no means saying this was not Accessary dn the time of war's needs —that were at any oiven moment the whole trade to be freed from its present restrictions and unfettered leave be allowed to all and sundry parties to proceed with the trade as they found it there would be such utter confusion and such disastrous surrender of the old forces ta those interlopers who in the war regime had gained insight into, and a position in this trade, that the situation would be unbearable for those who had previously constituted the backbone of the trade. As I have said, the force of circumstances has allowed the) legions !of the American meat trust to get an extra finger in the pie at a thousand points in the last three or four years. One need not now descend to details, although later I intend taking up this subject >at full length, as it is of such importance, to B'ritish commerce, .for the present one need only say that each of the steps back to normal conditions must be taken circumspe"ctly. The Government is fully alive to the dangers I have hinted at, and I have reason to know that the question of clipping the claws of the beef trust I —first cousin to Kaiserism and Hundom—is fully engaging the activities of many in official quarters