COLONIAL FROZEN MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 161, 17 October 1910, Page 5

COLONIAL FROZEN MEAT.

AGENTS-GENERAL IX AUSTRIA. FAVORABLE PROSPECTS. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. Received 1(5, 6.6 p.m. Vienna, October 15. The Agents-General for Queensland, New South Waleß and New Zealand interviewed the Minister of Commerce regarding Australian and New Zealand meat. They also saw the burgomaster and received a very sympathetic hearing. They subsequently interviewed the Minister of Commerce of Hungiry, "who undertook to consider the feasibility of opening the city of Trieste for chilled meat. It has been arranged to., send a trial shipment of beef and mutton to' Vienna. NEW ZEALAND MUTTON. ITS HOLD IN ENGLAND. ; . London,; October •. It'is officially stated 1 tjia-t ReW: Zealand: supplies two' fifths 'of the mutton imported into England. The remainder comes from Australia and Argentine. The Argentine supplies half the beef imported. Australia and India send one quarter of the wheat. iMR. CHAPPLE'S ALLEGATIONS. By Telegraph. —Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. In reference to a London cable challenging his Temarks concerning the handling of New Zealand meat in London, Dr. Chappie, M.P. for Stirlingshire; who is now in Wellington, states: "I do not describe what I do not see and I do not exaggerate what Ido see. I went there and saw for myself what I described and the evidence of one man who sees a thing is worth the evidence of a dozen who do not see. Accompanied by Mr. W. D. Lysnar (Mayor of Gisborne) and Mr. J. C. Field, of Oisborne, ! visited the barges at \h<PAlbert' D6ctfs 'anff'eaw' whit I described. I reiterate that the condition of the barges was bad and the barges are entirely unsuitable from their condition and from the delay in .transit up the river, which varies from 24 hours on 'kirdinftry days, to 48 hoyrs when Sunday intervenes." GERMANY WANTS MEAT. Mr. J. H. Marriner, of the Chris tchurch Chamber of Commerce, dealing with the above subject in a recent speech, said: "In the year 1870 the German population was 40,000;<K)0. ' T6-day it'was 65,000,000. In 1673 Germany had 25,000,000 sheep, tiut,' owing, to' ctoser cultivation 1 '"andto'tte'bf^ihg^ ;■there . "treat tar placed *R foreign meat, and so far the Reichstag had not seen its way to cancel it. Between then and now a great change had taken place; The industrial life had been quickened, and each ■ year saw it stronger, and before long the balance of voting power would be with it, especially as the country foik were -flocking tq- the; industrial yce^jtres^' There were fewer rural laborers now even in the face of increase of population than formerly. In 1882 42j5 per cent, of the population were classed as agriculturalists. In 1907 the agricultural population had dwindled down i to 28.6 per cent. Although the whole population gained 16,500,000, the agriculturalists actually lost 2,600,000. Those facts must before long force the rulers to admit foreign meat, especially as at the present time the prices of meat ruling in Germany were very high. NUTRITIVE PROPERTIES OF MEAT. Mr. Long, with the assUtance of Dr. ■'Bernard Dyer, President the Society of Analysts, has made a'series of tests with 30 legs of wether mutton, representing the products of England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australian and Argentine. So far as nutritive properties aTe concerned, the hpmjs-grown meat averaged 40.5 per cent., as agairfst 39.37 per cent, for the imported meat. The home-grown meat owed its advantage of 1.13 per cent, to a larger proportion' of fat, but this advantage has no value from the salesman's point of view, or even from that of the consumer. British mutton of the highest quality is almost too fat to 'be palatable, and so fat; as to. be wasteful. The meat with which Mr. Long's experiments were conducted was cooked, and when the waste in the British mutton was taken into consideration it was found to increase the cost so much as to render home-grown meat unattractive to the economical housekeeper. The most nutritive mutton was Scotch, with 45.1 per cent, of nutritive matter, and the next highest was New Zealand jnutton, with 41.9 per cent, of nutritive matter. The nutritive value of Australian mutton was 37.8 per cent., and that of Argentine mutton 38.8 per cent. The hign" position taken by the New Zealand product can only be regarded as extremely satisfactory. It was inferior to the best Scotch, and superior to the English, both from Hampshire and Shropshire. Mr. Long's report will have the effect of improving the reputation of New Zealand mutton, and it comes opportunely at a time when there is some prospect of European markets being thrown open to the frozen meat trade.