FROZEN MEAT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 164, 5 August 1909, Page 3

FROZEN MEAT INDUSTRY.

AX IMPORTANT STATEMENT. BY THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE. THE CAUSES OF THE DECLINE IN PRICES. REVIEW OF EMPIRE'S PROBLEMS NECESSARY. (By Telegraph.—Special to "News"). Wellington, Last Night. ' At the A. and P. Conference to-day an j interesting discussion occurred relative to the present state of the meat mar-1 ket at Home, and among those who spoke were tlic Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Ewan Campbell (chairman of the Wanganui Meat Co.), and Mr. W. C. Buchanan, M.P. (chairman of the : Wellington Meat Co.) and others. The i contention was put forth that the fall ■ in values of frozen meat was due to ! the big surplus of home supplies and i reference was made to the opening of < markets on the Continent. It was also | suggested that a conference of the ' i freezing companies In New Zealand' t should be held in Wellington to consider r the question. i ,

In dealing with these matters, the Hon. Tlios. Mackenzie said it was a mistake to suppose that there was in the total an over-supply of meat at Home. Although during the past ten years the entire British meat supply had increased by half a million hundredweight, the. population during the same period had increased in greater proportion, viz., between five and six mil- J lions. Coming, however, specially to the question of mutton and lamb on the London market, Mr. Mackenzie said that in the report submitted by the committee set up by the British Parliament to enquire into combinations in the meat trade, it was shown that in )SO9 the total mutton and lamb was 10,445,000ewt., and in 1008 it was 10.087,000cwt., or a decrease of 358,000c\vt. The chief item of increase in the total meat supply was that of pigs, which increased by 1,500,000cwt. Undoubtedly the principal cause of the existing depression was the lessened buying power of the British people, due to the lack of employment, and the fact that Bri-

■ tain was losing her percentage of the • grasp of the manufacturing trade of the • world, and Mr. Mackenzie again pointed out that producers in the dependencies by placing orders for goods with foreign countries, whose system of trading precluded our products from entering their markets, contributed (to a continuance of the depression in England, which was having so disastrous an effect on the price of our meat, 'flic speaker did not for a moment consider there was much prospect of markets being opened on the Continent for New Zealand frozen meat, and he instanced the action of France in recently increasing the duty from l%d to 2d per lb on such imports. He believed, however, that the present low prices' at Home would be but temporary. The present condition of the market' had to be met and accumulation of stock placed, and he was hopeful that by next season there would be an improvement. The better handling of meat at the other end was required in some respects, and there was no doubt it was capable of 'much improvement, especially in dull times, when the inordinate ciaims for meat not up to quality sold e.i.f. were much more in evidence. The Insurance companies have intimated, after threatening to discontinue underwriting altogether, that from the first of last month the rates were to be increased from 53s to 05s and from 47s Pd to 02s Od. Eegardiug the suggested conference of New Zealand freezing companies, .some good might result from such a gathering, but it was not possible to bring it about, as some managers did not care to meet at the same board some of the managers of other companies. Continuing. Mr. Mackenzie said there is a conference nowsitting in London considering the question of defence by land and sea, and it is hoped the question will be dealt with on lines commensurate with the interests of our far-reaching Empire., It is essential that should be followed 'by another of almost equal importance. Indeed, the one is the complement of and supplementary to the other. As the success of the interests of this second conference which I now advocate furnishes the real sinews of war and without these sinews it would be impossible to carry on the defence of any country, the British Empire has reached a period in its history when a review tff the whole commercial and interState interests and problems should be undertaken. The political economy tint suited the United Kingdom when Great Britain was the workshop of the world now requires readjustment to meet the changed conditions of competition from powerful opposing nations. The problems requiring attention are such a? call for the greatest minds of the aw to deal with, and those selected to take part in the deliberations should be pos- ' sessed of the keenest insight and the profounilest knowledge of the subjects to be considered, and not, as i 6' too often the ease, effete politicians, who may delegate to secretaries the responsible work while they talk an infinite deal of nothing at after-dinner gatherings. What are the problems that should be considered? These include the retention to the Empire of the best of our sons and daughters for the building up of the Home Land and for colonising the younger lands. In the past, too many of these sons and daughters have passed into foreign countries. There are lands enough for all within our far-reaching dominions. There are profitable occupations for all, and ample markets to absorb the products of their lands. This question is a most im portant one, and then there is the question of securing to our Empire the profits of what her people's produce of equal quality and quantity with other nations by a readjustment of trade relationship through the agencies of taring There is also the question of the British mercantile marine. This problem must be gone into. Our mercantile service is being enormously handicapped in its competition with those of other countries, owing to the latter being Stateaided by means of bonuses, subsidies and rebates, and also in connection with this class of competition further assistance is given by special rates on foreign "railways for the carriage of goods entering into competition with British enterprise. l,oi'il Cromer, in a very able speech, recently said that if but a tenth of the statesmanship which secured for Britain the enormous advantage of the Suez Canal was applied to our mercantile marine now the embargo on British shipping and commerce would soon be a thing of the past. There is, too, another important matter, and that is the question of foreign boats operating within th,. lliitish Empire. The extent to which these multi-millionaire concerns arc interfering with sound economics and ramifications of honorable trade can only be estimated. Already in the meat market in the Old Country their octopus tenacles are feeling theii way into the trade, and although evidence could not be extracted at'the investigations of the Parliamentary Committee on meat to which I have already referred to. it was made quite clear that, through the medium of these trusts, people in the United States of America are now fixing the price of meat in the provinces of the Old Country. Noticing these great changes going on around us, the combinations influencing prices and interfering internationally in such matters, we in New Zealand can hardly expect prices to be rightly adjusted as far as we are concerned, if some working basis be not established to meet these powerful trusts. What is wanted at the present moment is statesmanship making the interests of the Empire the first consideration. These questions of far-reaching national importance, however, were frequently made the plaything of political parties, and were determined not with a view to the nation's good but rather as they bore on the success or otherwise of personal amI bition and political promotion.

CAUSES OF THE BLUMP. MR. W. NELSON'S OPINIONS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington. Last Night. The following letter was seat by Mr. W. Nelson. Tomomn, Hnwke's Bay, to the Minister for Agriculture on 20th July:—"Hon. Thos. Mackenzie, Department of Agriculture, Wellington.—Dear Sir,— Following my telegram of this morning in reply to yours of yesterday's date, I am quite satisfied that the present slump in London is entirely dun to the supply exceeding the demand. The trouble liegan in the latter part of last rear, when the demand for lamb practically ceased, a-.id for mutton wa« very restricted, the result being that when this season's meat began to arrive there were still large stocks (large by comparison with the demand) of last season's meat on hand. Money still remained scarce, that is. in the hands of the habitual frozen meat consumer. Old stocks had to 'ne moved somehow, thus iower prices were inevitable. Then to make matters worse, the shipments were larger and earlier than ever known in our" historv, due to an almormallv fine winter and sprins in the North Island. A few figures referring to the shininents of Australasian mutton and lamb afloat should he instructive. On 21st 'January. 1908, there weTe 475,000 carcmto; '2lst July, 1001), 926,00j);Aarfascs.

March 2, 1008, 875,000 carcases; March 2nd, 1001), 200,000 carcases. .May 18th, 1908, 030.000 carcases; May 18, lilOO. 1, 540,000 carcases. July 20th, 1908, 945,000 carcases; July 20th, 1909, 090,000. Now, remember that trade in Great Britain still remained had, and money was scarce. Then is it necessary to look ' any further than supply and demand for J the deplorable conditions which have existed and do exist? Then comes the Question 0 f remedy. K is very simple, but not over nice. It means lower prices to the producer. Take il this j way. Amongst frozen moat consumers i m the Old Country there are many halfi; crowns to be spent in meat every week. Arc we to give them 51bs or lOlbs for / their half-crown. The producer will of

course not approve of this lino of reasoning, but he'has to. A few years back we in the-North Island thought that if we could average 7s or 8s for as many lambs as we could grow our fortunes would be made, but of late years we have been getting from 12s to 10s. so that the smaller ligure looks like ruination, but it is not so. We can still do very well at Bs, and we have got to face it. No doubt there will for J various reasons be ups and downs in the trade, but the sheep farmer need not starve on the average result, except where ridiculous prices have been paid for land. One reads in the papers a great deal about American trusts, etc. No one knows what the ultimate result to the trade will be owing to their methods. For all I know it may be utterly disastrous, but at the moment I am quite certain that supply and demand is the solution of the troublous conditions existing. There is one item which I suggest would to some extent mitigate the possible increase of the evil and which 1 commend to every freezing company in the Dominion, viz., not to increase 'the killing accommodation. Already we are killing too fast. 1 am aware that proposals to increase the killing capacity exist. I am pure n would be much wiser if such proposals were not carried out. At the same time, increased storage would he of considerable value. (Signed) W. Nelson."