THE AMERICAN MEAT TRUST.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 253, 23 February 1917, Page 4

THE AMERICAN MEAT TRUST.

The London correspondent of the Christchurch Press has the following to say concerning the operations of the American Meat Trust: " The frozen meat trade over here is very interested to see that New Zealand is waking up to the peril of the American Meat Trust, and the various New Zealand articles which have come across, and that of Mr Elliott, of Palmerstcn North, in particular, have been well commented on here. One contribution in the Christchurch Press has caught my attention, as in its effort to reveal the danger of Trust methods in the production and consuming ends, it rather confuses the issue. The writer in the Press said : " The agent in New Zealand who kindly calls upon the farmers and pays 2s per head more than the|Government, and hands out cash, is part and parcel of the concern awaiting the surplus in England. He nominates the firm to whom any over-plus shall be delivered. The party at Home has the wholesale establishment, which in turn has its retail shops, so that the man buying in New Zealand is acting directly for the retail shop in Brixton road, but the Government does not seem to realise the fact that practically all the meat supplies of London are controlled by the Meat Combine. With their enormous world-wide turnover they can afford to pay more than the local man, because they know they can in the end crowd him out.' If the above statement were the Alpha and Omega of the trade business would be entirely in the American grip, but British importers are thankful that it is not yet so. As a matter of fact, the Government frozen meat agents are all of them British operators, who are successful in keeping more than the smallest t the of imports entirely out of American hands at the present time, and the danger lies not in the Americans' capture of the lines of communication here, but of their present forward policy in New Zealand purchases in the Dominion. This is a New Zealand farmer's question, and he must not allow himself to become a second Esau." There is, however, undoubted evidence that agents of the Meat Trust are operating in this district. "Thames Star."