The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MAY 28, 1917. MR. MASSEY AND THE AMERICAN MEAT TRUST.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 28 May 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MAY 28, 1917. MR. MASSEY AND THE AMERICAN MEAT TRUST.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News),

‘‘lt would be nothing less tuan a calamity if the American Moat Trust got a footing in New Zealand.'’ This is the essence of what our, Prime Minister, Mr. W. F. Massey, said in addressing the Royal Colonial Institute in London last week. Mr. Massey also told his hearers that there was only one condition that could be worse, and that was if the Trust also got possession of the distributing end in London as well as the producing cud in the Dominion, but any such consummation would be nothing less than a calamity. The meeting was presided over by Sir Charles Lucas, and Mr. Massey veas speaking to an audience besides every individual member of which Mr. Massey, with his limited opportunities, could be little more than a mere tyro. This is not in any way intended as desparaging to Mr. Massey, for from condensed repports' of his utterances in the Old Country he has ably upheld the interests of this country. He has been unfortunate at times’ in the evolution Pf his statements, and the Speech'under notice is not free from strong inferences which he cannot have intended. He regards the presence of the Meat Trust, he told the Royal Institute, as nothing less than a great calamity, and he went on. to say what seems to us rather ridiculous; he had read since he had been in England that the American Meat Trust had commenced business in New Zealand, as though he had never read, or heard anything of the subject before. Of course, we know he could not have meant anything of the kind, for we are aware that he has discussed it both inside and outside of Parliament, that, he has promised that the Trust should never get a footing in this country, and later that he frankly admitted from his place in the House that Trust opera lions were no longer unknown in New Zealand. Mr. Massey went over the ground before the Colonial Institute that he had traversed inside and outside of the House in his own land. He told them he was somewhat suspicious of those people, and that their doings would bo very closely watched. 0 was not going to pass judgment without hearing the evidence and lookup closely into the position. This would be done, and- if any steps were necessary they would be taken. Mr. Massey s cabled words fall upon New Zealand cars with a stateness of an advanced degree. H 0 has made similar utterances here time and again, but we uov learn, at least, that ho has gone back to being doubtful about the Trust being in New Zealand at all; he has virtually admitted that he made an error in saying, many months ago (l that the Trust Was operating in this land, and he is still on the lookout for indications of this “nothing less than a calamity.” He says that when he discovers" them he will take steps to protect the people, but ho will not pass judgment without hearing the evidence. Prom what Mr. Massey has stud in New Zealand we thought he bad ample evidence from members of Parliament and others for admitting that the tentao os of the Trust had fastened on our chief

industry, but we were, evidently, mistaken. What are the prospects of more evidence being obtained by Mr. Massey in the future than was in his possession before he left this country for his sojourn in London? If he can, as Head of the Government, institute a scheme and secure the enactment of a law that will enable him to waylay Trust messengers, imprison them and take possession of Trust correspondence in transit, much in the way that the United States Government did to obtain posi session of documentary evidence that Germany was providing arms' and money for, Mexico to attack the United States, Mr. Massey may get the evidence of the existence of Trust operations that are not already in his possession. It is rather an amazing coincidence that our Government should fix a maximum price for meat, and yet leave it open to buyers and sellers to pay a larger sum, and accept a larger sum respectively. It is beyond contradiction that some buyers have been paying from one to four shillings per head for stock than what is understood as being the legitimate price. How do these people make a profit on their purchases, and if they do not make a profit why do they continue to go shillings beyond the market price in buying? Is it not dangerous to the stability of a buying business to go on buying on a guessed weight, instead of the more sure and equitable actual weight, more especially as it results in such people paying from one to four more shillings per head than they need do, and what the market price actually is? Why journals published in farming interests do not exhaustively deal with the subject is not understandable, unless it is that they have become so much under the influence of politicians that they are debarred from discussing the question irrespective of how far any individual or individuals may be involved. For years this country has known of Trust operations in our midst, as is amply demonstrated by discussions in and out of Parliament, and by reports in various newspapers, and yet not a finger has been lifted to stem the tide of calamity. Since he had left New Zealand, Mr. Massey said, he noticed that some newspapers stated the American Meat Trust had commenced business in the Dominion, as though the Trust’s presence here was entirely now to him. The whole question is becom-ing-tiresome; if combinations of capital are to “be allowed to control shipping, and to control other avenues of produc tiou, it is absurd to pretend that- we are going to stop them from controlling meat. If farmers do not realise this aspect of it now they'- will have a surfeit of evidence In the future when they are helpless to scramble out of the blood-sucking process they are being subjected to. We cannot blame men from exercising, their business instincts and proclivities to the full extent permitted by our.ilaws; they have a right, in working out their schemes, to pay ten shillings a head more for sheep if they like, and farmers, are just as much entitled to take double the price fixed by the Government if they can get it. The Trust is ■ liberally scattering the wheat under the scivc to attract the farmer sparrow, but the string will be pulved and downi will come the Trust sieve in due course, and .wo : have no. law to stop it. The very least our legislature might do would be to make--the. fixed price a maximum beyond which no buyer could go without rendering himself liable 'to [penalties such as would act as a sure preventative. There are laws against inveigling, cajoling and coaxing citizens into becoming the dupes of fortune-tellers and such like, but they do not go so far as to- warn, even, our farmers of the Trust sieve with its enticing bait. As the law stands wo cannot see how Mr. Massey is going to do more in the future than he has done in the past, despite his talk to the Royal Colonial Institute. It late until little short of Russian methods will be taken by the people to shake themselves free. As a people, let us at any rate be honest, and if wc do not intend to check the over-reaching commercial proclivities of some men that operate to the unfair disadvantage of others, let us stop harping about it. Whether it be a meat trust, coal trust, wheat trust, or any other trust, it is only doing what we have decided by our laws it is entitled to do.