the Commonwealth Government on all meat that was exported 
and this bounty was renewed the following year. By this means, 
the industry was enabled to continue, but in spite of it many 
producers lost heavily. During 1923, Australian beef on Smith- 
field fell to about 31d. per pound for sides ex-store, and, even 
at this price, met with a slow sale. In 1924, however, increased 
buying by Continental countries, including Germany, and 
especially the large demands of Italy for frozen beef, led to a 
considerable advance in price. The prospects for 1925 are 
even brighter for the Australian producer—provided that the 
Continent continues to buy. 
The meat trader classifies imported beef in the following 
order :—(1) South American chilled, (2) best South American 
frozen, (3) best Australian frozen, (4) best New Zealand frozen. 
South American frozen is, on the whole, from a better class of 
cattle ; it is also said to be dressed in a more marketable fashion 
than beef shipped from Australia and New Zealand. The 
difficulties of the Queensland producer have already been noted. 
Apart from uncertain weather conditions, and the distance from 
the European market, which are irremediable, the directions 
in which his economic position can best be improved would 
appear to lie in the development of a system by which supplies 
would: be spread over the whole year, by means of extensive 
irrigation in the producing areas, by schemes of fodder conserva- 
tion, or by greater cold-storage accommodation for the meat, in 
the extension of railway facilities in producing areas remote 
from the coast, and, finally, in the improvement of the quality 
of the herds and of their rate of maturity.* 
Considerable quantities of Australian beef are sold in the 
provincial towns in Great Britain, but, in Smithfield, it occupies 
a minor position. Indeed, it is essential that Queensland should 
ship chilled and not frozen beef to this country if she is not to 
remain at a disadvantage in British markets compared with 
South America.t To prophesy is to invite disaster, but just 
as refrigeration made the meat trade possible, so some other 
invention may enable Australian beef to be placed on our markets 
with the regularity and of the quality of the South American 
article. Australians are fully alive to the difficulties and are 
sagerly seeking a solution. Much capital and a closer settlement 
of the vast areas of the Continent will be necessary to meet 
developments if, and when, a solution is found. As this would 
imply a flow of settlers from this country, the development of 
the Australian chilled beef industry has an important Imperial 
aspect. 
~ (b) Mutton and Lamb.—Australia is pre-eminently a sheep 
countrv and though. in 1921. the total number of sheep in the 
* See also para. 15, ‘ Report of Imperial Economic Committee.” 
Cmd. 2499. 1925. | 
+ See also paragraph 13, “ Report of Inter-Departmental Committee 
mm Meat Supplies.” Cmd. 456. 1919.