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No. 148. New Zealand, No. 116. My Lord,— Downing Street, 24th March, 1911. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 18, of the 10th February, forwarding a copy of a resolution passed by a conference of the Church of England Men's Society, in the Diocese of Dunedin, on the subject of the Indo-Chinese opium traffic. I have, &c, L. HAKCOUKT. Governor the Right Hon. Lord Islington, K.C.M.G., D.5.0., &c.

No. 149. New Zealand, No. 122. My Lord,— Downing Street, 30th March, 1911. With reference to your despatch, No. 1, of the 6th January, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the information of your Ministers, the accompanyingcopy of a despatch from His Majesty's Charge d'Affaires at Stockholm, respecting the attitude of the Swedish Board of Trade relative to the proposals for the control of imported meat made by the committee of experts summoned by the Swedish Minister of Agriculture. I have, &c, L. HARCOURT. Governor the Right Hon. Lord Islington, K.C.M.G., D.5.0., &c. Enclosure. Sir,— • Stockholm, 7th March, 1911. With reference to Sir C. Spring Rice's despatch, No. 4 (Commercial), of 24th January, 1910, I have the honour to report that the Swedish Board of Trade has now made public its opinion on the proposals of the expert committee for the control of imported meat. The Board of Trade considers that the provision that meat imported into Sweden must, without exception, be accompanied by certain organs should not be approved, as this would render impossible the importation of frozen meat from trans-oceanic countries. The Board also sees strong objections to the provision that salt or smoked meat may not be imported in pieces of less than 4 kilos, weight, unless they form a whole quarter of the carcase, or a distinct organ. Such a regulation would, it is argued, unduly raise the price of several articles of importance for the meat trade, and especially for shipping, such as salted shoulder of mutton, &c. A proposal, contained in an amendment by one of the members of the committee, for the provisional prohibition of the importation of live cattle from Finland to the northern ports of Sweden is not supported by the Board, which, however, admits that a strict control over this trade is necessary, and that it would be desirable to make sure that such cattle were destined for immediate slaughter. As regards export, the Board, after hearing the opinion of the Chamber of Commerce of Scania as the most interested party in the question, does not consider that the proposal for a national mark on pork for export to England should be approved. I venture to point out that if the objections raised to the proposals of the committee with regard to carcases imported by sea being accompanied by certain organs are maintained, the way may be opened to the importation of Australian frozen meat. I may add that the newly appointed Swedish Consul at Sydney informed me before his departure that he hoped to be able to do something towards the establishment of such a trade. His idea was that the Swedish steamship line which goes direct to Australia should be induced to install cold-storage apparatus on its vessels, in order to be able to bring back frozen meat as return cargo, material for which is at present lacking. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Sir E. Grey, Bart., M.P., &c. Kilmarnock.

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