The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 16, 1902

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 444, 16 June 1902, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, JUNE 16, 1902

TO-NIGHT’S MEETING. The public meeting to be held in tiie Academy of Music this evening to consider the question of a Coronation memorial will, it is hoped, be largely attended. The chief suggestions in preference is that decided by the majority of the Council are a band rotunda, and swimming baths. Both of these could be carried out with the money available, and apparently would have the hearty support of the public. The subject of a band rotunda raises the additional question as to site. On that point opinions are varied. Those who are warmly in favor of the rotunda, we understand, have not any strong predilection for a particular site. There has been some advocacy for the place known as the Poinr on the one hand, and for the Recreation Ground on the other, but neither of these would be as suitable as the site suggested in Peel street, opposite the residence of the Mayor and Mayoress, the official representatives in Gisborne" of His Majesty. The adoption of that site would, as has been well' pointed out by some of our correspondents, 'be a graceful, recognition of services rendered by our worthy Mayor and Mrs Townley, and it would have none of the objections that can be advanced against the other proposed sites. More than that it is centrally situated, and its selection would avoid any heart-burnings or party feeling as between those resident at either end of the borough. As to the need of a swimming bath there can be no question, and we hope that the meeting will be unanimous in its favor.

MEAT MARKET AND TRUSTS. By our telegrams it will be seen that the New Zealand Produce Commissioner in London gives it as bis opinion that the operations of the American Beef Trust have not affected the London market. He attributed the better prices ruling at SmitlUield to the shortage of beef in America. That may appear to be the case in Lonuon, but Mr Cameron’s opinions/ are not borne out by information to hand by the last San Francisco mail. in the States it is claimed that the Beef Trust is starving America in order to feed Europe—that Id million people are compelled to go without meat so 'that the “ Big Six ” of Chicago may carry out their plans to capture ‘ the meat business of the world. Last year the Beef Trust exported pounds of beef and pork, sufficient to give every family in tiie United States 125 pounds of meat during the year. By a reference to the American records we and that in I out the 'trust exported 15,200,000 pounds more of meat than it; had done the year before. Late London papers report the arrival at the great Smithneid meat market of'“YOU forequarters and 14UU hindquarters of American refrigerated been” An English wholesale meat dealer declared several years ago that the price of meat was decided in London every morning by the American dealers. This was never so absolutely the case as it is at the present time, when retail butchers in America are going baiiKrupt by the dozen because of the insufficient supply of meat and the high price at which it is held. What the Beef Trust wants is to control the enormous meat business of London. That is a plain declaration made by a leading American journal. So it is hard to understand how Mr Cameron can have formed his opinion. Fortunately, for the present, our exporters have not been losers by the manipulations of the Trust, and unless the Trustseeks to clear every other seller out of the market, there 'is no present ground for apprehension. London has 1,750 butchers, and there is not one of them who does not sell American meat. Smithfield market is the chief meat market of London, and is the largest meat shop in the world. It is located in the centre of London. Under its roof of iron- and glass there are nearly four acres of meat stalls. The building is 630 feet long, 245 feet wide, and 30 feet high, with a tower at each of the four corners. Tens of thousands of carcases are hung on hooks along its crowded thoroughfares, and a large proportion of them, were exported from America by the Chicago Meat Trust. Adjoining the Smithfield Market is the Pork, Poultry, and Provision Market — a handsome red-briqk building 260 feet long and 245 feet wide. Taken together these two buildings cover an area of five acres. This enormous meat market, Americans themselves publicly declare, is dependent for its main supply upon the hogs and cattle that are raised by the farmers of the tVestern States. The American people are at

present the worst sufferers by the Trust. If an American butcher imports a forequarter or hindquarter of Canadian beef, he is taxed two cents a pound on it. If he imports a Canadian ham, he is taxed live cents a pound. If he imports live cattle from Canada, he is taxed 27A per cent, of their value. By means of this sheltering tariff,- every American family Is at the mercy of Chicago’s “Big Six,”— Armour and Co., Swift and Co , Nelson Morris and Co., Schwarzehild and Sulzqerger, the Cudahy Packing Co., and the G. H. Hammond Company. Having driven out all dangerous competition in America, it is now the aim of the Chicago monopolists to crush their rivals in other countries. This crushing out process is expensive, and

the Amer can buyer and retailer must pay the bills. It has already been proved, first, that nobody outside oi the combine in America can afford to buy tU.bOO cattle; secondly, that all the railroad companies give rebates to the Beef Trust ; thirdly, that the wholesale price has been unnecessarily increased; and fourthly, that the Trustlias fixed the price at which the retailer shall sell. And, as has been shown, the quantity of beef alone which the Trust has been shipping to foreign markets is increasing at the rale of 15,200,000 pounds a year. According to the last census made by the Department of Agriculture there are 29,000,000 hogs, 28,000,000 oxen and •12,000,000 sheep in the United States. The present meat famine, therefore, is not as likely to he caused by a scarcity of cattle as by the attempt now being made by the Beef Trust to control the meat markets of the world. For the first three months of this year

the increase in the. number of cattle bought by the Trust over the number bought by it in the same three months of 1901, was 73,686. The total Increase in weight was 27,760,177 pounds. “ The heavy demand for American cattle in the London market has strongly affected the price of live stock in this country,” said a West Side meat dealer. “ Cattle that are worth less than 7 cents a pound here will sell for double that price on the hoof in Great Britain. The market pr ce is governed by the shipments from the United States.”

HOME FOR AGED POOR. Whatever may he the decision of the meeting to-night, the local bodies must hear in mind that a new building for the housing of the aged poor is absolutely needed. It is probable that the meeting to-night will ask the Council to vary their resolution in favor of a band rotunda and swimming baths, but apart altogether from the Coronation memorial, the present disgraceful condition of things in Roebuck road ought not to be Bowed to continue. The Council has been active in sanitary affairs, and there has been a good deal of talk about a clean city, but the present condition of tilings at the home is such that it should be remedied immediately it can be attended to. The Times representative paid a visit, to the Homo In Roebuck road, and can fully bear out all the strong remarks about it that have been used by councillors. The state of the Home; is a disgrace to the district. The front building is fairly good, and it must be stated with pleasure that Mr and Mrs Vigis, the caretakers, do their best to have everything kept clean and neat. But the little shanties at the back—it would be a misnomer to call them cottages, as at one time they were—are a disgrace to humanity. The chimnies are falling from the woodwork, and in the places where the mortar ought- to be one can find places where he can put his finger through. During the recent cold nights the poor old fellows have tried to keep out the keen wind blowing through when the doors have been closed by the use of hags, while rags have been vainly made use ol to keep other crevices closed. The flooring is in such a state that- it is a wonder that none of the old men have yet fallen through. The caretaker has found it necessary to prohibit the lighting of fires in the old places, at night, for fear that some of the inmates might suffer, so great! is the danger of the rotten woodwork catching alight from the defective fireplaces. The cottages are so disreputable as to be quite beyond repair. How such tenements could have teen passed by the Government inspectors is beyond comprehension, for they are a disgrace. The housing of the aged poor is a duty cast on the community by law, and if there is a feeling of humanity in the place the Board should not hesitate about providing a remedy.