Westfield

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 27

Westfield

Auckland’s Fat Stock Centre

FOii many years now the Wes ::t the Newmarket sales, tori!;' in the interests of the ir Auckland Province. An eve .vided, and week by week pri of the province. ■Westfield Is exeep-tionally well situated as a market for fat stock: close to the biggest consuming centre of the Dominion, it is within a stonethrow of three freezing works engaged in the export trade; in addition, it is the geographical and commercial centre of New Zealand's richest and most progressive province. Remembering al this it is perhaps a littfe difficult to understand the attitude of ♦hose who are inclined to argue that Westfield is lending to lose its value to seller and buyer alike, for there is today a definite section of the stock-dealing community which is tending ta adopt other methods of meeting its stock requirements. The principal grievance against Westfield is that the average buyer cannot afford the time to follow a sale and more and more he is forced to adopt other methods. During the past year or so there has been a growing tendency to go past the yards and deal direct with wholesale vendors, or place the buying in the hands of contract men By this method it is argued that the butcher gets a better service, aud, most important of all, saves time. All over New Zealand the tendency is the same: dealing by private treaty instead of under the hammer

stfield fat stock sale, and before have functioned very satisfaclan on the land throughout the r-ready market has been proves have been set for the rest ' j appears to be growing: in popularity. To a certain extent this may have | been justified by results, but, nevertheless, there is much to support tne I contention that the doing away with I a market such as Westfield would be a retrograde step in the sphere of I live stock marketing. Westfield proi vales a very valuable service, and it j would be very much against the inI terests of the farmers of the pro- \ mce to see such a useful market i cease to function. ' There is something in the criticism of the critics, however, and it does I el3l 3 a move could be made at W estfield to adopt newer methods to | meet the changed times and needs of the buyers, for, after all, they are the men who have to be satisfied if the best results are to be secured for the vendors. During recent months there has been a tendency for the length of time taken for selling to drag; the sale of the beef has taken longer and longer, and the hour for starting on the mutton has been pushed further and further on in the afternoon. Thus, a butcher who wishes to do his own buying is caused to waste a whole day; he knows that the beef sale will start at somewhere round 10 hut, as there is no time set;, he cannot tell when he will get back to I town in the afternoon. On Wednesday of this week, for instance, it took till after three o’clock to clear an entry of less than 800 head of cattle. There is no time limit on the

auctioneers and consequently, jvhile one may run through a row in 20 minutes, another may take threequarters of an hour; it is only natural; each in his different way endeavourinj; to do his best for his .clients. Further, there are often cattle entered in the fat pens which would not have been classed “forward stores” by a critical grader; again, nothing else is to be expected, for the grader at the yards was put off many months ago on the grounds of economy and today, the auctioneering firms are forced to take practically anything that is offered and sell it in the fat pens, for if one firm turns down an entry another will take it;

quite a natural course under such competitive methods. Summed up, it seems that the critics are right to a large degree when they say that lack of system and running to a strict time-schedule is threatening to deprive Westfield of much of its value as a buying centre. At other saleyards throughout the Dominion the position has been the same. The writer can remember at Matawhero, the big store stock centre of the East Coast, when each auctioneering firm sold in its own yards and when there was no limit put on the auctioneers; the sale dragged on till late in the evenings and generally there was no pep or life in the bidding. The system of yarding stock jas they came in, irrespective of i which firm would be handling it, and | selling under a stop-watch with a j bell was adopted, and the benefit was noticed at once. Matawhero selling firms can now handle up to 27,000 j sheep in a day and keep the sale I moving throughout. At Stortfo.rd | Lodge (Hawke’s Bay) the same coni dition prevails; wokring under a whistle, four times the number of stock handled at Westfield in a day can be put through with the utmost ease. It does seem that "Westfield could adopt the bell system to advantage; the advisability of putting on a grader could also be considered. In no part of New Zealand could a better team of officials be found, and the auctioneering standard is particularly high; it seems a pity that, they should be hampered by obsolete methods.