FROZE HEAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 9

FROZE HEAT.

THE SLUMP IN LONDON. AN EXPORTER'S OPINION. WELLINGTON, August 4. The following letter has been sent b;. Mr W. Nelson, of Tomoana. Hawke't Bay, to the Minister of Agriculture : — " Dear Sir, — Following my telegram this morning in reply to yours of yesterday's date, I am quite satisfied that the present slump in London is entirely due to the supply- exceeding the demand. The trouble began in the latter part of last year, when the demand for lamb practically ceased, and that for' mutton was very much restricted, the result being that when this season's meat began to arrive there were still large stocks (large by comparison with the demand) of last season's meat on hand. Money still remained scaree — that is, in the hands of the habit'ial frozen meat consumer, and tie lowering of prices was inevitable. Then, to make matters worse, the shipments were larger and earlier than had ever been known in our history, this being due to an abnormally fine winter and spring in the North Island. A few figures referring to the shipments of Australasian mutton and lamb afloat are instructive —

Now remember that the trade in Great Britain still remained bad and money scarce. Is it necessary to look any further than supply and demand for the deplorable conditions which have existed, and which do exist? Then comes the question of remedy. It is very simple, but not over nics It means lower prices tc. the producer. Ta&e it this way : Amongst the frozen meat consumers in the Old Country there are many halfcrowns to be spent in meat every week. Are we tc give them 51b or 101b of meat for their half-crown? I say that the supply exceeds the demand.' Then we mn&t give 101b for half-a-crown. The producer Avill, of course, not approve of this line of reasoning, but he has to. A few years back we in the North Islana thought that if we could average 7s to bs for as many lambs as we could grow our fortunes would be made, but of late years we have been getting from 12s to 16s, so that the smaller figure looks like ruination, but it is not so. We can still do very w«H at Bs. We have got to face it. No doubt there will, for various reasons, be ups and downs in the trade, but the sheep-farmer need not starve on the average result, except where ridiculous prices have been paid for land. One reads in the papers a good deal about American trusts, etc. No one knows what the ultimate' result to trade will be owing to their methods. For all I know, it may be utterly disastrous, but at the moment I am quite certain that supply and demand is a solution of the troublous conditions existing. There is one item which I suggest wottid lo some extent mioigate a possible increase of the evil, and which I commend to every freezing company in the Dominion —namely, not to increase the killing accommodation. Already we are killing too fast. I am aware that proposals to increase the killing capacity exist, but I am sure it would be much wiser if such proposals were not carried out. At the same time increased storage ■would hi of considerable value." HON. T. MACKENZIE'S VIEWS. (Special to the Daily. Times.) WELLINGTON, August 4. At the A. and P .Conference to-day there was an interesting discussion relative to the present state of the meat market at Home, and among those who spoke were the Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Mr E>wan Campbell (chairman of the Wanganui Meat Co.), and Mr W. C. Buchanan, M.P. (chairman of the Wellington Meat Co.), The contention was put forth that the fall in values of frozen meat was due to the big surplus of Home supplies, and reference was made to opening markets on the Continent. It was also suggested that a conference of the freezing companies in New Zealand should be held in Wellington to consider the question. In dealing with these matters, the Hon. Thos. Mackenzie said it was a mistake to suppose that there was in- the total an over-supply of meat at Home. Although during the past 10 years the entire British meat supply had increased by half a- mill ion cwt, the population, during the sanie period had increased in greater proportion — viz., between five and six millions. Coming, however, specially to the question of mutton and lamb on the London market, Mr Mackenzie said that in the report submitted by the commdttee set up by the British Parliament to inquire into combinations in the meat trade, it was shown that in 1899 the total mutton and lamb was 10,445,000cwt, and in 1908 it was 10,087,000cwt, or a decrease of 358,000cwt. The chief item of increase in the total meat supply was that of pigs, which increased by i,soo,ooocwt. Undoubtedly the principal cause of the existing depression was the lessened buying power of the British people, due to the lack of employment and the fact that Britain was losing her percentage of the grasp of the manufacturing trade of the world. Mr Mackenzie again pointed out that producers in the dependencies, by placing orders for goods w!Hh foreign countries whose system of trading precluded our products from entering their markets, contributed to a continuance of the depression in England, which was having so disastrous an effect on the price of our meat. The speaker did not for a moment consider that there was much prospect of markets being opened on the Continent for New Zealand frozen meat, and he instanced the action of France in recently increasing the duty from ljd to

2d per 1b on such imports. He believed, however, that the present low prices at Home would be but temporary. The present condition of the market had to be met and the accumulations of stock placed, and he was hopeful that by next season there would be an improvement. Better handling of meat at the other end was required in some respects, and there was doubt it was capable of much improvement, especially in dull times, when the j inordinate claims for meat not up to quality and meat sold ci.f. were much more in evidence. The insurance companies had intimated, after threatening to discontinue underwriting altogether that from the first of last month the rates were to be increased from 53s to 655, and from 47s 6d to 62s 6d. Regarding the suggested conference of New Zealand freezing companies, some good might result from such a gathering, but it was not possible to bring it about, as some managers did not care to meet at the same board some of the managers of other companies.

ranuary 21 Fannary 28 larch 2 ... flay 18 „. uly 20 ... *•* 475,000 5E0.0G0 875,000 630,000 945,000 925,000 1,050,000 1,200.000 l,54O;000 690,000