BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 February 1924, Page 3

BRITISH & FOREIGN ITEMS.

LATEST CABLE NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AND N Z. CARLE ASSOCIATION THE NAVAL ORDERSA DENIAL. LONDON. February lit. ‘‘lt i.s a tissue cl lies from beginning to end," declared Mr Rumsay .MacDonald, when Ins attention wa- drawn to a report; fimn .Melbourne regarding Labour and the Empire cruise. TALLOW SALES DELAY KD. LONDON, Keh. 20. The tallow sales were not held owing to the strike.

THK FROZEN MEAT TRAD!-

W'EDDEf/S ANNEAL REVIEW. .Received this day nt. ft. 15 a.to.) LONDON. Keh. 21. Wedilcl’s Annual Review of the frozen meat trade -tines that from an Empire point of view, it is disconcerting to finil our supplies ol meat from the British Dominion'.., shrinking while foreign supplies are rapidly increasing. Of a total of 933.1 iC.li tons of beef, lamb and mutton imp-cud into Great Britain in 1923. oiJv twenty-

eight per cent .v.as produced within the Empire. The pen ( ntn-T- in. R.PJ2 was IE) and in 1920 it was 13 per cent, of the total. It lias hitherto been claimed that in the production of mutton and lamb tie* Dominion*, were supreme. both in quantity ami quality, hut now ;south Ameriea is seriously challenging this supremacy as 39 per cent, of car immuds of motion and iamb in 1023 came from there. So recently as 1920 South America's peredutage was only sixteen. South Ameriea appears incapable of producing mutton and lamb equal to New Zealand's high standard, but n great improvement is noticeable in recent years. The Argentine can now command a. considerable premium over the price of Australian mutton. The only hope for heel’ producers liein the increased demand. Rroductiini costs and intermediate charges are now approaching bedrock and it cannot he gainsaid that heel, in comparison with other food-, is too cheap: hut while the supply exceeds the demand, prices will remain iinprnlitable for tho producer. In 1923 Great Britain imported (ilO.OOll'tons ol beef, or s(j per cent, above the average for the three years before the war when the Home supply was greater than now. Even with a trade revival it is unlikely that any material increase on that. (|tinntily can be absorbed by tl'.e British market in the near future.

LESSON OF DLXMUDE DISASTER. ('‘Sydney Sun” Gables). EAR IS. February 2 ! .' Tin* report of tin* Committee which ino.aired into the Dixmmle disaster, describes the airship as perfectly air-wor-thy and the diSaster was due to the tact that she was struck by- lightning. The report, says it was impus-ihlc. individually, to fix the collective responsibility for the failure to take adequate measures to provide temporary landings and also sufficient supplies of petrol. The disaster sliow.s that the question of lauding stages dominates the whole airship problem and that long Mights ought not to be nnderlnkcii until landing -,t ayes ate provided. Ti IF COMING ok motor SIDES. LARGE V EASE I. FOR X.Z. TRADE. t Received this day at 9.-15 a.no! LONDON J'ebitin-y 21. Lloyd's list draw attention to tee fait that top meti s : tmtCK .-.u. amors I* an shipyards, eight of t»-hsch * x .ted tea thousand gloss toimage ea-it Five of those are building in the United' Kingdom, and ought to have been computed by the .summer, hut were delayed owing to the boilermakers strike. Thev are unlikely to he ready now. till early in 1925. I'roliahly the first to he completed will lie the Iland.iiii'gHuutli American 'Line’s flcn thousand tonner which is building at Hamhiirg. She will carry live hundred first- and second class passengers and fifteen hundred third dassers and w ill have a speed of thirteen and a quarter knots. The next vessel to he completed will be the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand's tv.enty-two thousand tonner Aor-

■angi which will maintain seventeen knots in tho service, between Vancouver ail'd Now Zealand. Ifni land and Wolff are building 'three twenty-two thousand ton tiers —two for tile Royal Y-ail Company and the other for tho Union Castle Line.

PRICK OF INSULIN REDUCED. (ReeeiveU this day at 9.25 a.in.) LONDON, February 21. 1 1 is officially announced that the price of insulin from the 25th. will he reduced from JSU to eight-pence per hundred units. This is be low tho most recent American retail price.

A DEXIA L. CAPETOWN, February 21. Lord .Dovonport interviewed regarding Bovin's .statement that the dock crisis v.as precipitated by l.ord Dcvou--1 oil's action, in curtly dismissing the delegates without giving a reason, stated that at tlx- meeting roterred to. the employers reply wa.s given to demands submitted six week* previously. The demands wore Billy expounded: 'tv I’iviu. The meeting lusted over an hour. BUSMEN'S STBrICE SETTLED. [ Reuters Telecrams.] LONDON. Feb. 21. The busmen’s strike has been settled. GENERAL NICHOLSON DEAD. LONDON, Fob. 21. Obituary.— Brigadier-General J. S. Nicholson, a member of the House of ('ominous. THE STRIKE TERMS. (Received this day at 12.2") n.tn.) LONDON, Feb. 21. The dockers’ inquiry has been adjourned sine die. The terms of tho settlement are an increase of a shilling immediately and a shilling payable on flic first of June. There is to be no victimization.

A resumption of work is expected to-morrow. The- terms, which included tho establishment of an inquiry into the question of deensualization. must first be approved by a conference ol the dockers’ delegates convened for to-night, blit this is regarded nsv certain.

Tile situation is complicated by the fact that the stevedores’ union has made an independent claim for a haltcrown increase. Tin’s has not yet been considered by the employers and the resumption therefore, will not he fully effective until the stevedore? also return.