THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1912. FROZEN MEAT ON THE CONTINENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10714, 18 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1912. FROZEN MEAT ON THE CONTINENT.

| The question of the admission of frozen meat into Continental countries becomes yearly nioro acute us the cost of living increases. The pressure of public opinion in favour of the removal of the obstacles to the importation of meat is strongest in Germany, where the price of meat has risen so rapidly duiing the past ! year that, according to the London correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, hundreds of thousands of | families cannot afford to buy as much meat as the Government allows annually to each man in the army and navy. With numbers of poor families it is so great a luxury that they cannot buy it even once a week. In view of these facts, one no longer wonders that sixty-six meetings, attended by an aggregate of 100,000 , men and women, were held in Ber- [ lin on 0110 night to demand "the abolition of all duties on foods, the removal of premiums on grain exports, and the opening of the frontiers to the importation of live stock and fresh and frozen meat." It is a natural though unfortunate consequence of the growing costliness of ordinary meat that the consumption of horseflesh in Germany is steadily increasing. Nearly 6000 horses were slaughtered for food in Berlin alone during the first half of the present year, an increase of 2o per cent over the number slaughtered in the same period in the preceding year, while the suspicion that in some districts dogs are lining killed for food is strengthened by a significant warning | to the owners of pet dogs that has fbeen issued by the S.P.C.A. in Dresden. Germany, with its sixty millions of population, offers a much greater market for frozen meat than do the other countries of Europe, and in spite of the powerful agrarian interest, which has so far been placated by tlio imposition of prohibtive restrictions, -feho time must come soon , when the Government will be unable to deny to tho people any longer fa- i cilities for obtaining the cheaper meat which awaits admission to the German market. Data supplied by Mr O. I?. Valentine, at one time chief dairy expert in Xour Zealand, and .

now connected with a meat firm which las interested itself in the introduction of frozen meat on the Continent shows that Italy was tht-. first Continental country to udmit Australian meat. The importation began five years ago r.s the result of an agitation against high prices, but it is, asserted that it was greatly stimulated by the outbreak of cholera two years later, which impressed the public with the conviction that they must bo bettor fed if they were to resist disease. Then, too, the return to Italy of emigrants who had become accustomed when abroad to a higher standard of living the demand, and tho fact that the first shipments of .Argentine moat wore of poor quality gave the Australian article a preferenco that it lias managed to retain. Tho demand for cheaper meat spread to Switzerland across the Italian frontier, and though in that country, as in Italy, tho agrarian interest was oppo-sed to any relaxation of tho restrictions against foreign meat, the people triumphed, "and there are now regular consignments of Aiistralinn beef, mutton and lamb to every important town in Switzerland." Portugal and France each receive a small quantity of frozen meat, but little development of the trade is expected in the I former country, and the harassing ro- [ giija tions which govern tho admission of frozen meat to France will have to be relaxed before the French consumer can benefit to any extent by the abundant supplies available for tho market.