The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1913. THE MEAT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 203, 16 January 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1913. THE MEAT INDUSTRY.

Mr. W. D. Lysnar has just returned from a visit to England on behalf of the meat producers of the Dominion. His principal mi-sion was to trv aud induce the Port of London authorities to introduce improved methods in the handling of New Zealand meat. Able and tactful man as he is, his mission appeals not In have met with any great measure o f success. Interviewed in Sydney, he slated that (lie reforms which were promised more than two years ago have not been effected, anil he now suggests the drastic remedy of taking .nvav the distributing iredc from London and conferring it on other ports. From the producers' standpoint, the position is extremely un-;iti-f:H-tory. At the present time the meat is sorted to marks and grades in the holds of the steamers as they lie in the Victoria and Royal Albert Docks, anil i= then transferred to barges, which, it is alleged, are often in anything

ml, ;i sanitary condition, and rs far re- 0 noved from cleanliness its the language >f the lumpers engaged is from godliness. c rhese barges drift with the tide about 1: welve miles up the river to the up- J, :own freezing stores, the journey oceuJving at least eight hours. Other car:sses are loaded into vans at the docks \nd taken by road to Smitlifield, where, ifter a drive occupying more than three i hours they are carried out again in the J same way for distribution to the shops j or railway stations. Mr. Lysnar set | i forth this primitive method of kindling ir. an exhaustive report, which he pre- j pared in 1010. and he estimated that j between 10 and 12 per cent, of the New , Zealand meat was damaged through faulty handling in Loudon. A certain amount of the trouble was due, he said, to unnecessary sorting, as a result of ; the multiplication of marks and brands by the exporters, but the concluding sentences of the report showed that the shortcomings of London extended far beyond the operations of discharge. He said: "•Smitlifield market is so inconveniently situated as regards the freezing stores that it has become a practice to sell every carcase that'has been put on the market to be sold, even to the extent of a sacrifice, rather than put it back into the store. Want of method of controlling (lie day to day values of the meat on the Smitlifield market is very apparent. This is largely accentuated by there being so many small middlemen whose operations tend to lower the market instead of raising it. The present system by which the identity of the New Zealand produce is lost immediately it comes into the hands of the retailer is unsatisfactory. Under all these disadvantages it is unwise to continue making London the chief port of discharge of New Zealand produce" .Mr. Lysnar was under the impression that the Port of London Authority had consented to make the South-west India Dock the point of discharge for New Zealand produce, thus shortening the journey to Smitlifield by more than onehylf. but it appears that the plan has been abandoned. The - barging system, we are told, is still "sliding the trade by first ruining products and then increasing the cost to the consumer." The perpetuation of conditions of this kind should not be tolerated, and if a remedy can be found by diverting a portion of the trade to Bristol, which already sends Argentine meat to London by rail, or to Liverpool and Manchester, the steamer companies probably would facilitate the change. II: does not speak well for the administration of the Port of London that there should be any necessity to even suggest such a change, but the present state of affairs is intolerable. and even at the risk of kicking away the stool of dignity of the metropolis of the world we shall have to do something to protect the interests of one of our principal industries.