FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10139, 9 November 1910, Page 3

FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

POSSIBILITIES OF NEW

MARKETS.

Captain A. W. Pearse, who i.-. weiiknown throughout Australasia as the cuit-oi" of the "Pnstoratists' lie-view," who visited Cinistoimvch recently, in an interview with a representative of the Pros:;, gave soma interesting information regarding Hie frozen meat trade and the season in Australia.

As to lire efforts being made to remove the restrictions on !he importation of frozen meat into several European countries, Captain Pearso remarked that two years ago ho was the official delegate I'rmn Australia and Now Zealand for most of the leading companion end (inns to the conference held in Paris of the refrigerating interest:; of the world. One of the principal matters he interested himself in was the removal of the restriction on the importation of fro/.ou nmat into Europe, and In's efforts on that occasion had proved the (bin end of the wedge, as only a day or two ago it was announced that Australian and Argentine mutton had been admitted to Austria. J>e did not think that New Zealand meat would bo in demand to any extent on the Continent, beeaus/ it is too fat for European taste. But the diversion of a largo amount of cheap Argentine and Australian meat from the London market to the Continent should have a most beneficial effect upon the prices obtained for 'Now Zealand meat. With the exception of lambs, Captain Pearse did not think there Avould be much demand for Xew Zealand mutton on the Pacific coast, of the United States, where New Zealand mutton would be too fat for the taste of the people. But, again, the New Zealand product would be benefited by the. diversion from the London market of Australian and Argentine mutton. He did not anticipate that America would ever come to Australasia for beef, which could bo got cheaper from Argentina, and will be got much cheaper for the Pacific coast as soon as the Panama Canal is finished. Regarding the Australian chilled meat trade, Captain Pearse said that three trial shipments had been sent, and a fourth was about to be despatched to London. He did not think the trade would ever be of much good to Australia, for the reason that chlled meat could he landed in London within twenty-two days of the despatch of an order by cable, whilst it would take from sixty to sixty-four days to reach London from Queensland with the existing means of transport; and there was very little hope of this period being reduced. In the case of chilled meat ordered from Queensland, the price might drop seriously between the time of ordering and the time it arrived in London, and the man who ordered it would make abg loss. Again, chilled meat, once it was taking out of the chilling room, had to be sold right away, consequently the Queensland chilled beef trade was at the mercy of any Argentine beef that happened to be in London ,and if a slump in price occurred, the Queensland product woidd have to be sold for what was offered. Queensland, would, therefore, he considered, have to rely on her frozen meat trade. Her beef was deteriorating, due largely to the neglect of breeders to introduce good bulls: in addition the average weight per carcase had fallen off during the last twenty years as much as the Argentine carcase [ had increased. In Argentine there were 15,000,000 acres of alfalfa,, or lucerne, which enabled cattle to bo fattened and killed when three years old, and that was the reason why Argentina . could supply regularly from 300,000 to 350,000 quarters monthly. As to the possibility of the Chicago Meat Trust, otherwise Messrs Armour and Swift, extending its operations to Australasia, Captain Pearse stated that Messrs Malcow and Kauffmann, representing the trust, had spent five months in Australia and New Zealand, "spying out the land," and as a result he understood that they decided to recommend the purchase of one of the Sydney freezing concerns, to which will nr oh ably be added a canning plant, i t was also probable that the trust would establish works in a part of the Northern Territory. He did not think that the trust would extend its operations to New Zealand at present. The Bovril Estates Company, 'Ltd., wbi<di has taken over some of tho Kidman stations, proposes to erect works in the Northern Territory.