THE FARM INDUSTRY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 530, 10 June 1909, Page 8

THE FARM INDUSTRY.

MEAT MATTERS. OUR ALLEGED EXCESSIVE EXPORT.: '. AHE SWIFTS HERE? „ ■ .Only a fmv days ago it was stated, with somo degree of confidence, that there would soon bo a .shortago of ' fat stock in Now Zealand.That statement' is' very-ranch'at variance with the s corigested condition of affairs existing; during the last few . months. .Complaints have been so frequent as-to the inability of tho freezing companies to take tho supplies as fast as they arrived, and as to,the numbers of, stock whichconsequently reverted to stores that tho position does no{> warrant the" use of tho word "shortage' in a":forecast "of .the,'next few months. The.export of New ; Zealand , sheep and lamb this, season has oertainly been enormous, but; tho resources from which , these were- drawn wero also unusually extensive. For tho more distant future, tho remarkably congenial autumn and winter have made the prospects of a big yield of Jambs and wool u&ct season particularly bright. \ '• ■ ITiio rumour, that .Swifts, the great meat monopolists, havo come to New Zealand is the mest important "statement" of tie month.- If, as is alleged, the',offer;received by the new Wellington Co-operative Freezing Company, to purchase their whole output, was from Swifts,.it means,much to.the New Zealand .meat industry. Secrecy has hitherto been observed by tho provisional directors of the new company -as .to tho. iuirnoof 'the company through whom tho oner reached them,-and this secrecy, combined with tho recent cabled references to , the Swifts' ambitions in-Argentina and Austrq-. lsisia, may have had the effect of giving rise, in some fertile mind, to a dream of Swifts' in New Zealand. . ■Powerful corporations—especially American ones—are seldom popular, and tho, rumour about Swifts' .offer, therefore, will be, received with' some misgivings bv farmers ; interested in the new company. Iho reforerices, however, to the anonymous offer, made by the chairman of ■ directors at recent meetings in Wairarapa in terms of approval, seemed to indicate either that the great' trust has no connection with it, or that, the offer can safely be accepted, notwithstanding that 1 fact. ■'