VIEWS OF PRODUCERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2914, 28 October 1916, Page 7

VIEWS OF PRODUCERS

A SATISFACTORY PRICE BUT SOME GRIEVANCES REMAIN. Speaking to a Dominion reporter after yesterday's conference, several representatives of the producers expressed ! themselves as being fairly well satisfied with tho now scale of prices payable by tlte Imperial Government for New Zealand, meat. They recognised that the prices to bo paid from now until tho end of the war, and possibly for six months after the conclusion of peace, were thoroughly profitable from the point of view of the farmer, oven if they did not represent maximum values in "bile open market, and they appreciated tho advantago of, boing able to sell tho meat f.0.b., at a tunc when the shortage of shipping was causing considerable anxiety to men engaged in other branches of production. But they wore disappointed that tho Imperial Government had declined to interfere with the arrangements for the retail sale of New Zealand meat in the United Kingdom.

"We really wore less concerned about getting improved prices than wo were about checking speculation in New Zealand meat in the Old Country," said one gentleman.. "The New Zealand farmer is not in business for his health, and naturally ho wants to got tho best price possiblo for his products. But he would havo been content with tho old scale of prices— .1- very profitable scale —if ho had been assured that,lie was benefiting tho people of tho Motherland by selling below tho world's market rales'under tho rcquisioning scheme. Our complaint was that while we -worn soiling tho best mutton at <Ud. psr lb., f.0.b., tho retailers in. tho United Kingdom were charging more than twice that price, thus proving that our comparatively low price waS tho

merchant and speculator, and not the British consumer. The grievance is not removed by the increase of Jd. por lb. in the price to be paid here by tho Imperial Government. Wo still ' have no guarantee'that firms operating in the United Kingdom will not make a very hi? profit out of tho meat before it roaches tho consumer. lam referring, of course, to that portion of the meat not required for Army purposes." ''The maintenance of the existing selling' arrangements in the United Kingdom, moreover, leaves us with a suspicion that the interests of the Now Zealand farmer may. suffer after the war owing to an . advantage having been given to foreign concerns. We suspect, in short, that the American, trusts are malting a good thing out of Now Zealand meat, and, more serious still, that they are improving their footing in the London market at our expense. However, it is no good grumbling. I think we all understand that we are getting a very good price, and that tho Ministers in' London have done the best they can for us.' We have to recognise that the British Bonod of Trade holds a dominating position, since it controls the shipping that is necessary to get New Zealand meat to the market, and that wo cannot get behind its decisions. Mr. Mussey and Sir Josenh Ward wdcrstood thV position well enough before they left here, and they will have represented it strongly." A southern farmer expressed some concern with regard to the demand of tho British Board! of Trade for 'a- reduction in storage charges "by about one-half." During last season, he said, the storage charges admittedly wore high, and tho total bill paid by the Imperial authorities in this connection, according to a statement mado at the conference, had been in tbo neighbourhood of £750,000. But in.spite of the storage charges, meat had accumulated in tho Now Zealand stores to such an extent that freezing factories had to curtail their operations, and many farmers.suffered severely through befog unablo to get their fat stock into tho works at tho. best time. '.'The Imperial Government tlas. stated several times that during tho war big stocks of frozen meat aro being kept in hand," said this producer. "It is not to the advantage lof Now Zealand that stocks should 'be kept in this country, and I hope that tho reduction of storage charges does not mean that efforts to move the meat prohiitly from tho Dominion factories will oe relaxed thi6 season. A" glut in the stores is disastrous to the farmers." The representatives of the freezing factories, who met tho Minister of Agriculture on Thursday, set up a,committoo to consider the demand of tho Imperial Board of Trade for'a. reduction of storage charges. The report of this committee lias not yet been presented, but it is anticipated that an offor to bo made by the companies -will represent a substantial reduction on the storage charges that prevailed last season. .Tho companies may pass some part of [the concession on to- the farmers by a slight increase in freezing charges. The capacity of the refrigerating stores, attached to the ■ New Zealand freezing factories has been increased substantially during the'las-t two years, and it is admitted that storage, even at a reduced rate, is highly profitable from tho point of view of the companies.