MEAT BOARD’S JOB

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 191, 2 November 1927, Page 9

MEAT BOARD’S JOB

REPLY TO CRITICISM “PROTECTING N.Z. INDUSTRY” ‘The job that has been given to the New Zealand Meat Rroducers’ Board is to safeguard the interests of the farmers of New Zealand and to see that the man who actually produces the beef, mutton and lamb is under no unhandicap in the strenuous competition in the world’s market.” The above statement has been made by Mr. David Jones, chairman of the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board, in reply to criticisms recently made by Mr. James Begg at the annual meeting of the South Otago Freezing Company. That the board’s power to prevent sales of freezing works had made such works worthless as securities was one of the charges made by Mr. Begg. The policy of the board, said Mr. Jones, was to discountenance the purchase of New Zealand freezing works by overseas meat interests, or the acquiring of any further interests. This, states Mr. Jones. Is generally recognised as a v'ise policy, maintaining as it does an open door and freedom of trading. Instead of depreciating the value of the securities of other works the board’s policy has just the opp J ite effect. If the key works of New Zealand had been sold and a combination similar to the Argentine had taken place, states Mr. Jones, the other works in the Dominion would have had no chance of standing up to the competition, and must have become of less value than they are to-day.