FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15989, 25 August 1917, Page 14

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

i 4 j DEAR .MEAT A.ND PROFITEERING, j P.IvD CHO.SS DAT AT SMITFIFIELD. | (FROM OI.'K si'Kci.vi. coKiiEsrusiJENr.) LONDON, Juno 19. The era of very dear meat lias shown no lapse during the last- fortnight, and if the Meat, (Sales") Order. 1917. is to control the home killed trade in the. future it has evidently come, a trifle late, for the British public is paying •2s p or II) for lamb at the height of the lamb season. Doubts are expressed as to whether the Government will redeem its promise to lis maximum urines, as the indications are that the farmer may be. too awkward a customer to deal with in thi.s way. Meanwhile a new Food Controller has been .appointed, Lord Jlhondda, reputed to be Wales's richest citizen and a business man like his predecessor. As for frozen moat, rather larger releases ol Government £l'>"k.s have been made, to the extent of about 1.5 per cent, raor« nor week, am! doles June bnen well appreciated. South American -heon. it "is to be noted, realised 10d per lb as against Sid for Government wethers. -South American iambs jue at tho present, time fetching lid l-cr lb as against lOd lor Government lambs. CHARGES OF 1 5 1! OF ITEE 1.1 ING. The English daily pros* is echoing inst now a considerable public outcry as to* proliteering. Jf lias" some reason ior Ibis iiu view of the level of prices ol tho home-killed article, and 1 am glad to .see a letter which appears in the Press thi-s week from Mr J. Raymond, the editor of "Cold tStojjage, clearing the "Colonial" trade from any charge of profiteering. The argument lie adduces is a clear one, as follows: in peace times the. • imported meat consumed by civilians in the United King(iom amount to one-third oi ihc total tup n]v, tlw two-thirds being home'produced. The necessities ol war have diverted the groat .bulk of the frozen .supply to military use, and todav probublv not more than lo per cent of the total meat avsulable in tlw markets ot the. country tor civilian I consumption is imported meat. Lie ally the 'profiteering,' if there bo any, on this meat can only be a mraoi' tai-'-tor, i.e., on lo l>er. cent, of the total consumption. Three-fifths of the meat imported into this country lor the civilian trado has, however, been imported from North and South, America, by companies mostly American owned— who have undoubtedly made prohts much in excess of tliose ol peace times. As ■* profiteering' .has only place iu respect oE about threc-hltlis of 15 per cent, (or 9 per cent.) of the country's total meat supplv. I will leave the nulilit: to estimate what influence

the puuitt: 10 " """ that can have upon the whole popwon. I. think it will be obvious to all that the. imuortoil moat trade, reduced as

ine. inui«i v. ' — - it is to a fraction ol its pre-war proportions, cannot by any moons have been tho main enuso of the meat cousumer being mulct. Imported colonial meat was one of the first articles of food supply over which tlio exorcised control, and on this side, as well as hi Australia and New Zealand, British traders liavo whole-licartealy , co-operated in the enforced regulntioi?. • of the trade which H.M. Government . ovidentlv did not find to bo so difficult. an interest as the homo fanner to .control. seeing that it is only now eht-er-l ing unon the latter and apparently : more 'complex operation. The British I Empire owes a great- debt to frozen . meat at this time, and this Imperial i resource, it is to bo hoped, will after , the war be more universally recognised > as an intorcst worth fostoring in British • hands." ; frozen meat auctioned for J .RED CROSS. I Smith field has celebrated to-day its f "Teat festival auction Bales on behalf of the Most and Allied Trades Rod I Cross Fund, and although tho results > aro not yet known. I believe tho auctions have been emiuontly satisfactory. , There were' on market this day 500 quarters of- frozen beef, 11,000 frozen » sheep carcases, and 7000 trozen lamb s carcases, and 1 understand that in the [> early morning sales of this meat, which t comprised over 500 lots, more than - £20,000 was realised. It would be ini vidious for me to mention any names r of donors, boeause tho list from New • Zealand alone I should not have room j e for in this paragraph. Beef also came | n from Canada and South Africa, and the f tail-end of the catalogue was filled with :l »i large number of miscellaneous gifts 0 »n kind, which went well under the cl hammer. There were, seven live bulS locks auctioned, one of them, given by Air Gordon Campbell, chairman of the fund, realising no loss than £i7o. The II ''Japanese Village"' and the annexe f vrere closed to ordinary trade and re- - served for tho celebration, special stalls a Jieing decorated, and forming a bright--1 feature of the array. The Meat lied <"tofs Fund, by the way, is now past the total of £150.0)0. on its way to tho £250.000 aimed at. a , ITEMS. The few fallowing random notes I take from my mental notebook of the past fortnight. Sir Charles Petrie. the 11 well-known frozen rabbit and salmon n importer whose name is known to many New Zealauders, k to be. presented with the honorary freedom of Liver- ! s pool. The frozen rabbit- trade has lest one of its oldest members in the death [" of Mr H. J. Webb, of the London Cen- ® tral Markets. Ico has been short latea lv in several parts of the kingdom, _ owing to the heavy work incurred by r ice plants in this period of prohibition of Norwegian imports. Billingsgate, t. the fish metropolis, has felt the shortage. and tome of the scotch meat sent

I down to London from the North ! ! a ] in sunored from short ot tho ( t rail war cars. Tho United States is j <.hirin2 in tho frozen fish contracts for i Briti-i; Array, a 1 i.O'iO.OOOll) coui irac' having just been completed with a : firm in 80-ton. Massachusetts. T-rozen j lK»neles.-> rod is tho jatest retngerateu j import into Groat Britain,.'