AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

Taihape Daily Times, 1 October 1919, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN MEAT.

SERIOUS POSITION REACHED.

STORES FULL AND SHIPS

LACKING7.’

*Urgent representations have recently been made ‘by. The -Commonwealth authorities with ~a.— view to securing further 1-efrigerated tonnage. In 9. cablegram tothe Imrpenial Government recently the Minister for Customs V Massey Greene) described the position of the Australian frozen meat industry asalarming, and pointed out that if ' the glut of frozen meat in the -stores .were allowed to continue, thus more. or less pnralysing the whole pastoral in- ; dustry. the consequences must be calamitous, He also suggested that recentlypublished figures, showing that r§‘llile' in the last twelve months the Argentine sent 12 million tons of frozen meat to Britain, Australia only sent 1}; millions, did not indicate the fostering of trade within the Empire in the manner generally desired. ' V In reply, the Minister received a inessage stating that there had been a. considerable increase in the insulated. space allotted to Austrafia, which’ will be available before -the end of the year. -. " ' i

According to statemertts made- -in Sydney, the cold storage space in. all the Australian .States— is pr»ae-tiicalllgz filled. Beef and mutton at present: I stored in Australia represent rather more than the normal yea-r’«s export in pre-war times. It is stated that the present export ‘of beef and mutton barely keeps pace with the average - weekly killings for the European market.. In additiop, there are ov_er 12,000,000 skinned rabbits’:-Ilwaiting“el:. port{ and the British Shipping Con-~ troller has intimat'<?cT that for the pie} » sent no further space is to be provided in refrigerated steamers. for rabbits. I _ The New South Wales Government is being urged to follow the example of ‘ Victoria, and provide. additional cold , _ storage accommodation.‘-” Meantime a i request has been cabled to England asking that permission be'given to have the rabbits held in cold storage in Aus- I .tralia, to the order of the British Gov- : ernment taken out and canned sothat i they might be shipped in ordinary steamers, thus providing‘ additional! _spga»ce for beef arad Inut.t_on—p-fchiefly In-utton, as »practically all the beef new I ‘being. beeught for exportfis £9l‘ céinn’illg‘: purposes; “f ' ' - 3 g. Q¥.‘."6n Cox stated that the 'ships'‘‘ ‘fitted with refrigerators now enrouto I for A.ll§il‘allß.,a.l'Q not sutficlient "to overtake , mu-ch less reduce, the quan- l tities of beef and mutton held for oversea trade. The congestion is especial: ly acute in New South Wales" andli Victoria. In a short time thelcold storage space in Australia would“ lie completely blocked up. If the beef and", mutton trades were not to be te'nlp_o:s~ arily paralysed, additional rcfri'gerat7ed‘A space must be pro\_7_ided eit~ller_ on =se”a“l or land. “Refrigerated steamers,” Sir Owen Cox proceeded, “have not yet been provided ‘to take the place of those lost during "the War, . tl_louglr-7 almost weekly urgent messages are Eng cabled to England for additio9né'Jli refrigerated space. V - ml‘ “The fact of the matter is that suefif‘ space is not really available, Welvknno-W that meat is to be rationed in'El‘igl-aind this winter, and we know that_la.rge. quantities of meat are ’ avail‘Ja.—blé Argentine, and as a vessel‘ canmake three trips to the Argentriiieflin the I same time -as it takes to make one to 1 Australia. “the Shipping Controller evidently believes that he [would not be justified in sendiilg special rcfriigérated ships to Australia at this juxie-tiiiéei-£233 “In the present coiiditionipofetvvoilfli shipping, the most All_stral‘i:t;':;'i:"-z""in?'%2"‘2':"'—'3'l poet is to get as much mea}ti's7as?~‘!:t?§r‘a?§"i} - 4 - ~ 1§ Put in. TW p i (I V; E