AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 September 1923, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. THE AMERICAN OCTOPUS. SYDNEY, Sep. 14. Air Thompson, representing the tobacco growers in the Northern districts of New South Wales, said to the Tariff Hoard that the. Britisli-Australian ToIjkcoo Coy. was restraining the growth of Australian tobacco, and otherwise hindering the development of local industry. Thompson said tho company intended to confine its purchases to about seven hundred tons annually, while two thousand tons of Australian leaf were grown annually. The proposed restriction would mean disaster to the industry. The speaker submitted documentary evidence to show that the Company was dominated by American interests, and was supporting American leaf, in preference to Australian grown. AfKAT EXPORTERS’ FEAR.

SYDNEY, Sep. 14. Aleat exporters fear the cost of insurance and freight quotations of meat in England may be depressed in consequence of the combination effected by large British meat interests to fight the American Beef Trust Union. A cold storage company has been formed with a capital of £8,780,000 to take o\ or tho

interests of Veste.vs and others. The company will have fifty one cold stores and freezing works abroad, and twenty one refrigerating steamers of the Blue Star line to handle their cargoes. The company will control 2,400 retail shop depots and market stalls in England, together with factories and wholesale selling establishments. Since then, Veste.vs and an English and Dutch meat company in Argentine have entered into partnership with the Buenos Ayres Government- to market tho latter’s moat in England, and local exporters fear they may have to squeeze between the Beef Trust and the combine, with a consequent depression of quotations.