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67
Mutton and lamb, though shown together in official returns, are
rxt in equal proportions, since we eat about five times as much lamb
as mutton. Home supplies account for a little over one-third of our
needs, while of the imported chilled or frozen mutton in 1958, fourfifths
came from New Zealand and the rest from Australia—the latter
almost doubling her share. Four-fifths of our chilled, and frozen lamb
came from New Zealand, one-twelfth from Australia and one-twelfth
from Argentina—supplies from the latter dropping in 1958 by over
half. Iceland and Uruguay supplied us with small amounts.
It is in pork meat (excluding bacon) that our home production is
supreme. With an increase in home production of 15 per cent in 1958—
and a decline in imports of 30 per cent—home sources accounted for
about 96 per cent of our supplies, the bulk of the remainder coming
from South Africa and Argentina, the leading supplier in 1957, whose
supplies again declined by over one half. Pork also comes increasingly
from Sweden, while amounts from New Zealand, the leading supplier
in 1956, declined further.
Bacon and ham tell a different story. There was more bacon
available in 1958—and the United Kingdom provided about two-fifths
of the nation's needs (including imported frozen carcases). Of the
remainder, two-fifths came from Denmark, with substantial amounts
from Poland, Eire, and Holland, and smaller quantities from Hungary,
Sweden, and South Africa. Our home production of offal remained
much the same in 1958 as 1957, as did imports—so that of the total
offal eaten one-third is imported. Of those imports Argentina accounted
for about a third, although Eire and Australia increased their share.
The United States sends us a noticeable amount of beef offal as does
Brazil, which otherwise does not export beef to this country. As might
be expected, New Zealand is most important in exporting lamb offal,
while Denmark is in sending offal from pigs."
Consultation with representative organisations. The circular
requires the authority to review and after consultation with such organisations
as appear to the authority to represent the interests concerned,
to report to the Minister. There are two distinct groups who are
interested, namely, those who are concerned with slaughtering and
those whose main interest is in the sale of meat. There are 137 butchers'
shops in the district. Many of these are branches of large concerns,
some dealing only with meat, others dealing with meat as one of their
lines. 50 of the butchers' shops in the district are owned by such
companies who probably are not interested in any facilities being made
available for killing locally, though they might be interested in whatever
storage facilites were provided. The other shops are managed by the
individual butchers. Even though he is not one of those with his own
s aughterhouse, a butcher might be interested in there being additional
slaughtering facilities in the district, and even more interested in additional
storage room. Most of these butchers are members of the Retail
Meat Traders' Association.