THE MEAT TRUST
HOW TO FIGHT IT
NOT TOO EARLY TO BEGIN
SUGGESTIONS BY MR. V. H. REED
Befmmcc to the danger threatouing Now Zealand by I lie invasion of tho Heat Trust was made by Mr. V. 11. tteed iu the House of -Representatives yesterday.
Mr. 'lleed said that Ihe question of whether the Trust was already firmly established or not was immaterial. The aim of the Government should be to keep the Trust out of New Zealand if it was not here, and to turn it out if it was here. Tn Argentina, where the Meat Trust controlled the export trade, it had never been Hid policy of the Trust to build works. They had never erected works there. Tho policy of the Trust was to purchase works already established. The Argentine meat trade was not created by the Meat Trust, but by the British. It was after the Trust had got. control of the trade in the United States that 1 hoy vent to Argentina and purchased certain of the works there at largo prices. They raised the price of stock to fabulous prices, making every company operating in Argentina lose, money. With their enormous wealth tho Trust were able to withstand the competition. "if they start' this process in New Zealand," said Mr. lleed, "how long will it take Iheni to knock out the sinail co-operative freezing companies, or even the formidable Gear Company? The small co-operative companies would last no time, but would fall down soon after the Meat Trust began operations." Mr. Heed went on to tell how in Argentina tlie Trust, after getting control by eliminating competition, proceeded to get its money bitck by reducing the price of stock to the farmers. "It is not too early to act now," said Jlr. Deed. "Some say it is too late. Hut if we do not act at once we shall find that tlie Trust will get a firmer foothold iu the country, and we shall find that the Trust will get ail enormous influence enabling it to block future legislation, exactly as is the case with the licensing question now; Look at the unutterable mess the liquor trade is in now as to its relation to tho people of the country. Why? Because neither side can move., "If we shut our eyes to this question, bel'ore wo know where we arc we shall find that tlie farmhrs' companies will be selling our half of their interests to the Trust in some form or other, <ind then you will find that you ore up against a proposition in regard to the Meat Trust, iu the same way as you are up against u proposition in dealing with the liquor trade now. "Tho first step to make is to prevent any outside capital being in any freezing works. Make all tho freezing works locally owned. That is olio step. I don't say that is going to bo sufficient. Allother step that, would probably be advisable would bs to prevent sales of fat stock in tho Dominion, and to make all producers freeze on their own account. I know it is a big step to take, but lo my way of thinking it would be a most effective stop. Tf fat stock sales were prohibited (except for the local market) this would prevent buying by the Trust. T belicvo that at the present iSme liuycrs for ccrtain works which aro reputed to belong to tjio Trust aro scouring up and down tho Mann.watu buying stock and taking thorn'past co-opernlivq works down to works of. their own, paying the farmers a bigger nrico than was offering at. the door of their own works. What is this being done for? It is being done, to break down Jlieso small companies. Mr. T!eed urged jt-lso that it was of tlie utmost importance that New Zealand' should secure its own ships in order lo fight the Trust, which always sought to gel. control of shipping.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19170725.2.83
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3145, 25 July 1917, Page 8
Word count
Tapeke kupu
664THE MEAT TRUST Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3145, 25 July 1917, Page 8
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.