American Heal Trust

Levin Daily Chronicle, 17 November 1917, Page 1

American Heal Trust

RAMIFICATIONS IN" HAWKE'S BAY. WHAT PRICE WILL MEAT EE IN 1920? ("Ilawke's Bay Herald.") The investigations of the select Parliamentary Committee into tho operations of the American Meat Trust in New Zealand, and the charges and denials on the part of members of Parliament of business relations with tho Trust, have caused considerable interest among producers and consumers. Hawke's Bay was mentioned several times in the discussions in the House of Representatives, but apparently neither Ministers nor members had any idea of the extent to which tho Meat Trust is obtaining a gradual monopoly of the trade in this province. Stock-raisers and fatt-cncrs are being tempted by exceedingly high prices, in some eases three and four times the present rates, and many of those that have not yet been approached are anxiously looking forward to the temptation.

Leading stations in the Ilawke's Bay district have contracted with buyers who arc believed to represent tho Meat Trust to sell the whole of their bull calves for the next four years. Stockraisers in all parts of the province have contracted to sell their heifer calves for a similar period, at varying rates. Sometimes prices as high as £8 at two months, and sometimes £7 at a week old, are said to have been offered. The Meat Trust buyers are very active, and these apparently absurd prices arc being embodied in contracts weekly. What the price of meat will be in 1920 and 1921 is not hard to imagine.

Though the Trust docs not desire New Zealand mutton particularly, it has been obliged to take over a good deal of it. It was mentioned in Parliament that the price being offered for lambs in Ilawke's Bay was above the market rate. This is the explanation. The farmers have refused to contract for their future beef unless the buyer took over their mutton, sometimes at a penny a pound above the export value. It is stated that the buyers were known to get their money back by refusing to supply the Government with beef unless the extra penny, say, was paid to it on the mutton. This last statement cannot be confirmed, but instances of the tightening of tho monopoly form common talk both in town and country. The position of tho local consumer should be rather unpleasant in a few years' time unless measures are taken to release the stock.