The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1912. WESTRALIA’S BEEF BUSINESS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 61, 5 November 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1912. WESTRALIA’S BEEF BUSINESS.

The “Beef buccaneers” of Western Australia are allegedly building up a monopoly of the meat market of that State, and the Government has now gone to the length of opening butchers’ shops to counteract this combine. Recently one of the ring, a wellknown cattle-man, Mr Connor, M.L. C., was interviewed in Sydney, and gave an account of the great cattleraising industry of the West. Mr Connor’s firm holds nearly six million acres of land in the north-west of the Commonwealth, stretching for nearly two hundred miles from the coast. In the same locality there are three stations of seven million acres. Once upon a time these great stations had to send their stock overland to Queensland or New South Wales, but of late years they have opened up profitable markets in the Philippines. Every month Mr Connor ships 1200 head of fat cattle to the Philippines, where there are 13,000 American troops, who draw their meat supplies from Australia. A bout 300 head are sent to Java every month, and markets are to be opened in Singapore, China and Japan. Not long ago Mr Connor bought 23,000 head of cattle, which he claims is the biggest deal of the kind ever made in Australia. Asked if the American Beef Trust had ever found its way west, Mr Connor answered in the affirmative. About two years ago a representative visited the district and investigated the position thoroughly, but nothing had been heard of him since. Mr Connor says the Federal Government is anxious that the Philippine trade should go to the Northern Territory, but while this would be a very good thing for the Territory it would be a hard blow for the men of the north of Western Australia who had really created the trade.

SENSATION MAKING. It does not seem that there is much in the story that spies have been busy in the vicinity of Sydney securing information which would be useul when Germany or Japan or China is ready to invade Australia. Practically all that an enemy needed to know might much more easily be obtained by procuring in the ordinary way Government maps and publications. Of course professional soldiers, even when holidaymaking abroad, amuse themselves by studying the strategical features of the place they happen to be in, from a military standpoint, and it is well known that the Japanese have examined the military possibilities of all the Austra-

lasiaii—and even oilier Pacific States—within recent years. The “Barrenjoey” story is too dramatic and it is suggested that some sensation-maker has mistaken a party ot harmless land prospectors tor spies, and hence the highly-coloured version cabled. In any ease, it would not make any material dill'erence it the party did really consist ot spies—so long as they paid their board before quitting.

“WIRELESS” ON STEAMERS. Wireless installations will soon he pretty common, and on all well-con-ducted sea-going passenger boats such an equipment is now the rule rather than the exception. Few people, however, realise what a hig extra charge to the steam ship companies the cost of installing a wireless telegraphy plant means, but that it will he returned in time is probable from the evidence Mr Balsillie, the expert to the Commonwealth Government, who told a Royal Commission at Melbourne last week that for passenger steamers plying in Port Phillip, the apparatus would cost £2BO, and the emergency | service £l5O to £IBO, besides a royalty to the wireless companies of between £OO and £2OO a year. The return to the shipping companies would come mainly from the “love and kisses” business—messages to and from passengers and friends on shore. This traffic, lie said, referring to English experience, was worth £2400 a year to the boats between Hey sham Harbour and the Isle of Man. Any accident, or suspicion of an accident, increases the “Jove and kisses” messages. A mail boat on the Australian coast was delayed just six hours quite recently, through a trifling mishap to her machinery, and the number of wirolers messages received from her passengers went up to 180, as against an average of 25, the cost per message being from 5s to 10s.