MUTTON AND LAMB.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 142, 3 July 1937, Page 4

MUTTON AND LAMB.

The meat-growers of the Dominion have had to wait a good long while before getting any word from our Minister of Marketing as to what arrangements he had made with regard to the disposal of their products jn the Old Country. Yesterday, however, away up at Dargavillee, where he is flood-staid, the acting Prime Minister, the Hon- Peter Fraser, was able to announce the substance of an agreement reached by Mr. Nash with thc British Government relative to our exports of muttpn and lamb. So far as it goes, this would seem quite satisfactory. What, when boiled down, jt pracitcally means is that, as has hitherto heen virtually the case, our flock-owners will continue to ,enjoy a really unre- * stricted market for the whole of their exportable production of inutton and lambThe arrangements arrived at, is thus, in essence, merely an extension of the earlier agreements made by Mr. Coates, first at the Ottawa Conference and then as ' the result of a quite brief visit to the Old Country- It will be readily recognised, too, that Mr. Nash has had infinitely more favourahle conditions under which to conduct his negotiations. In the interval, the depression has almost entirely passed away from the United Kingdom, unemployment has been greatly reduced, industrial and commercial activity has been thoroughly revived and the "jlurchasing power of the people" has been raised to a level it has not reached for the last seven or eight years. ' Mr Nash's path has thus been very greatly smoothed out for him, and so far as is yet intimated, he had to fight no such drastic proposal as had Mr Coates with regard to the imposition of a levy on New Zealand meab to provide a fund wherewith to subsidise Byitish bqef-growers, who are now themselves cnjoying a much more ample and profitable market for their product. The somewhat bfgger figure-limit which Mr Nash has secured may prove" (>f some benefit, tliough, of course, word of it comes altogether too late for it to help as a guide to sheep-farmers in their breeding operations. However, they had luckily taken their fate in their own hands, fJocks have been greatly increased and the prospects for the coming export season are of the most favourahle. As yet the Minister has told us notliing as to arrangements regarding either beef or pork, both of growing importance among our exports. However, Mr Nash's present report is probahly only a preliminary to sornetliing much more comprehenesive, and we may still hope to hear of many further advantageous arrangements ifiade as the result of his helfyear's sojourn in the Old Country and his excursions to Continental capitals.