WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON NEWS

COLD STORAGE IN LONDON. WELLINGTON, Jan. 11. It will bo remembered that last year a friendly suit at law was brought by the Government to determine whether the -Meat Producers’ Board could purchase a site and erect cold storage stores in London. At that time the Board held an option over a property on the Thames Embankment, and it is believed that this option has since been exer-

cised. However, the London correspondent of the “Pastoral Review ” tAustralia) throws further light on this subject in a communication to that journal. He writes: “There is at present a good deal of discussion and feeling exercised over the recent negotiations between the English representative of the New Zealand .Meat Board and the cold store authorities in London regarding the current rates for the public cold storage of frozen meat in the Metropolis. “ As mentioned, after somewhat prolonged negotiations in which the Non Zealand Board’s representative threatened the stores that if they did not make a concession the Board would proceed to raise a store for New Zealand meat in the Metropolis, a reduction ol 5 pc- cent on the existing rate for the first month’s storage and 12* per cent for the second and succeeding months was announced by the cold stores, which concession may be fairly accredited to the activity of the said Board i„ pushing for better terms. That up parentlv, however, has not ended matters as immediately after the concessioi was made known and accepted, the

New Zealand Board’s representative announced his dissatisfaction with the reduction, stated that it should have been 10 per cent and 2-1 per cent respectively, and gave It to be understood that if further advantage were not acceded the New Zealand stores spoken of for London would be proceeded with. ••It is not surprising that this has left rather a bad taste on the palate of the cold storage industry here, who maintain that not only should a concession if accepted, have been accepted with good grace, but it is quite impossible for them to go any further along toe road of concession under present circumstances. As a matter of Lo t

i|-. 0 writer can slate from personal knowledge that the public cold storage industry of Great Britain is passing through an extremely difficult time. One hesitates to say what huge proportion of the existing storage space is actuiillv unoccupied just now and has been practically out of commission this

' Suffice it to say that in Liverpool alone the chief owners in that port, viz the Union fold Storage Company, Lave nearly three million cubic feet closed down, which is about a third ol the total available in Hie Mersey port. Cold storage affairs are hardly any better in London, and it is known for a fact that there are going to be a low sad cold storage balance-sheets m con sequence. To put it briefly, public cole storage lias been greatly overdone n (.rent Britain during Lho last decade thanks very much to the forcing tactic: of Lie Government in the "iir. wlici the cold storage proprietors added t< their space for patriotic reasons am without regard to the future. let oi the face of this New Zealand announce: her intention of entering the cold stor age business in Great Britain, ant

rumour states that a riverside site on the Thames has already been purchased as a preliminary to this action. While the Board may not really yet have gone as far as this, it still looks as il they cannot be in possession of all the facts as to the cold storage position in London.

>■ Even were cold storage a nourishing business in London, tbe Hon Itl would iiliennte tbe sympathy of tbe whole of tbe trade by socking to enter as a competitor, just in the same wa\ as if meat buyers from Loudon "'ere to enter the lamb-growing business in tbe Dominion by getting a combination to make purchases under the nose ol the industry there. Trade conditions, however, are not so free in the Dominion as they are in the Old Country. Ibe impracticability of New Zealand ever successfully coping with her seasonal supplies from her own establishment in London is stoutly maintained by those in the trade, who state that not onl;, will it be impossible to manage all tin traffic to market from one source, at rush periods tbe fitl illness of the supply would require tbe old dependence on other stores, which obviously could not in tbe ordinary way of business assist one who was a rival instead ol a customer.” Of course it has to be remembered that the Board is not risking its own money but that of the unfortunate producers, wl.o may yet discover, as the Dairy 'Produce Board did. that it has bitten off more than it can chew.