AN ABNORMAL SEASON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1939, Page 3

AN ABNORMAL SEASON

FREEZING STORES CONGESTION.

STATEMENT BY BOARD

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This .Day

Referring to the present congestion in the stores at some freezing works, particularly in the Auckland, Taranaki and Canterbury districts, the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board states that everything possible is being done to relieve the position. The abnormal season, with dry weather over a great part of New Zealand, has caused farmers to send to the freezing works large numbers of sheep and lambs much earlier in the season than is usual. It was impossible to predict in advance what has happened. As a result of the heavy killings, as shown by the figures to March 15, the total killings of all classes of meat show an increase of 870.405 freight carcases, as compared with the killings to the same date last year, the beard states.

The actual increase in lambs killed amounts to 672,785 and in mutton the increase is 415,913, making a total increase of considerably over 1,000.000 running carcases of sheep and lambs. Tn Canterbury alone there is an inci case of 470.984 running carcases of sheep and lambs, and substantial increases have occurred in other districts. As a result of these heavy killings, the storage capacity of many works has been severely taxed. It is expected that, as a result of the heavy killings to date, the killings from now on should be considerably reduced, and furthermore, if good rains arc experienced in the dry areas it would have a still more marked effect in reducing killings. In the allotment of shipping space, special consideration has been given to the points where the trouble is acute, and the shipping companies and the Meat Board have specially arranged for vessels to give early loading where possible to ports where the position has been most serious.