The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 1919. KEY TO THE MEAT PROBLEM.

Taihape Daily Times, 15 August 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15, 1919. KEY TO THE MEAT PROBLEM.

With which its incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

I “The whole diificulty is shipping; Gov- ‘ crnnieiit has tried all in its power to get ships to relieve the eon-gestion and has succeeded in getting some increases; the key to the whole situation is shipping, and plenty of it——i-efri- | gerated shipping, in the future, as well as at present.” The above is what Sir Joseph VVard told ma. body of expert producers who want a committee of such men appointed to go to Britain the investigate the whole situation of ‘ the New Zealand meat market at Home. If possible, this proposed committee should arrange for the distribution of meat shipped from this Dominion. -Sir ;Joseph Ward said, do whatever you i can, by all means, but your difficulty‘ l lies in not. being able to get supplies I into Britain with regularity. You may lfind a Irrarket, but the first time you [let that market go bare it is as dead to y-ou as ‘though you .never had it. Before you trouble about markets be sure of an unassailable "potency to keep your markets supplied. “The key to the position is shipping-——refrigerated ship. I ping.” ' Shipping, and still more shipping, and after that, more shipping is 1 Sir Joseph Ward’s specific for the meat ; marketing trouble. By trying to organ-.-ise markets and distribution without ishipping, we shall - only make ouriselves the laughing stock of trusts and COIIIbiIICS,,WIIO control Shipfping. Our meat ailment ‘isa. canker that is going to eat out the heart of I production, and it is verily astonishing [that every producer in the country is ,' not realising that markets are no good to him as long as shipping combines {leave his meat .ro't.ting in the New ‘ Zealand cold stores he has erected at I his own expense. It "is pai'.t‘icu.lafly remarkable that men who want a. committoc of -expert producers to go to Britain to get markets and arrange distribution, should not first have looked ‘ at the seven or eight millions of earcases flying in store in New Zealand; that they should not have seen where the .blockage is. "Sir Joseph VVard tells I them to do anything tli~-at will help, but i the chief vdifiiculty, the vital necessity, I the first essential step, is to get means I of renioving the blockage in New ZeaIland. There is no occasion to look {for a place to put it—get it away iiii ships, more ships, for in shipping alone lies the great cause of ‘the prelsent trouble. Is the advice given by E Sir Joseph Ward worthy Of-‘3ttClltlO1l? {Does he possess the business capacity [and experience that should command 1 every producer’s confidence‘? Has any man been closer in touch with meat :export at its Very core? These ques''tions will be regarded as ridiculous, but in the proposal to send a committee of experts to Britain, is it not a fact that there is a desire in some pre-' judieal quarters to turn away from the findings of an ‘expert who had powers of investigation beside which theirs can only be puny‘? A committee of experts would go to Britain and could only return with the same advice that Sir Joseph XV-a.r(l has given, if they were not bamboozled into some other notion by the cunning of the trust. \V-e imagine a committee Ofi experts arriving in B‘ritain and commencing to investigate; the first question would be, “lVherc is your meat?” The next would be, “Can you gnar-antee—-not promi:~:e—-a. regular, uniform supply, not only of earcases, but also of all side-lines——tripes, heads, trotters, and such like‘.?” “\Ve‘.ll,.” reply the experts, “we can. if we get the ship- I ping; you get us the sliipping, and we i will supply the goods." With a Smile‘ sardonic, the experts would have it gently impressed upon them that, if, they wanted to market their meat they must find their own ships to get. it; there. In the meantime, British mar- ‘ keéts .must depend upon the %trust's« meat, men who have the shipping combine at ltheir back. This is ljust about the nature -of the meat situation, as Sir Joseph VVard has found it by close and interested experience. It 15 °l3‘'‘°US that any committee of ex-‘lf-fer wasting another‘ year, land f:)°l~1lTn crest-fallen to New Zea. Jose he ‘CDO-at precisely what Sir P Ward 1S telling producers ‘today’ Let Us rub the scales from our CVBS and shake oul-serves clear of P 0” tical p;-cjinlice, so that we can See p]'fuffl~V that fill‘ foremost business Minister that New z.ealaml 1,35 yet pm_ guced knows more Of the meat Simaion at this moment than any committee of ‘experts can gain, in five years

of investigation. His experience bf it has been continuous, and wh.a.t expert is better able. to understand it? There is nothing intricate or confusingly complex about the meat. business; there are millions starving for the meat that 0011305“ 51?0l'eS, and it con-gests stores b°°““‘3° “'0 fooliShly wait for ships to Fake it 3“’3Y; Ships that are to-o busily {engaged tilkillg their owners’ nient from other sources of supply to Europe. When the producer finds his road or his railway blocked, he doesn’t flounder about investigation, he gets carts, horses, railway trucks, and men -to clear it away, knowing there is somewhere for the spoil to go. Why doesn’t he act similarly with his meat congestion‘? There lies the nreat deteriorating, some rotting, and he meanders «around until somebody suggests a committee of experts to investigate.- But. why does he not do as he did with the block on his railway, and immediately rush for any means available: for carting and clearing it away? H-e need not investigate as to where to put the spoil, for there is a limitless void in Eur-ope that is willing to pay twice the amount; that the Imperial Government is now; giving for it; but get it there! Every l weilder of the franchise in New Zea-! land, outside the trust coterie, willi h-elp to provide the necessary shipsi with their votes at the coming electinons. There is no doubt about a remunerative price being forthcoming for the next two or ‘three years, and‘, during ‘that Ft.irn"e imarkets nray ibe } organised. The one essential factor is 1 to get the meat to Europe, and there is ‘ no certainty what action the shipping combine will take if we attempt estab- I lishment of a. State line. We have to! realise the intensity of the control-i ling influence the trust already has.l By calling off all" ships fromus they trust can blockade us into compliancet with its will. VVe go on in riotousi living, collecting riches from each; other, buying up land, but wlut does it ‘ profit ;us if we have no shipping? We eannot sell what we produce, and we ‘can only buy what the trust and combine likes -to bring to us. Sir Joseph Ward"s words strike upon our ears like a mighty thund-er‘--31-ip. He <=.-ays: “So far as my judgment goes, the KEY to the whole situation is shipping—refrigerated shipping—and plenty of it.”' And he adds: “This applies to the future, as well as to the present.” Let us, in 'calm»judgment, ask, who knows better than this man who occupied the second position in the Government that lifted New Zealand from being :1 secon-d—rate colony to a high national status? The man who controlled the finuances during the period of almost miraculous increase of settlement, riches earning and property value, this, or any other country has ever experienced. Let. ‘all look with earnest scrutiny over the past and shape their opinions upon whatever we have been able to gather froni"it. We shall find that shipping is the essence of our national life, and that no man is better equipped with the experience in national finance to correctly advise upon the future than Sir Joseph \Vard.