THE MEAT CRISIS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 22 February 1915, Page 8

THE MEAT CRISIS.

AX OFFER REFUSED. UEl.l' FROM I'RODUCEIiS. The I'hnaru correspondent of the Xew Zealand Tmie.s tilegraplis: "The shortage of in filiated space lor the tx|wn oi frozen meat is causing positive alarm iu this district, and, iiukcil, from a!! accounts, all over the South Island. The luiiure oi the liovcrament to iii:d i satisfactory solution of the difficulty is causing a great deal of surprise in all quarters, and meat producers absolutely iel use to ijelieve that the shipping companies cannot he forced i.'ito sending their boats to Xew Zealand ports instead ui allowing them to be loaded in Australia, where the freights are more remunerative.

"Thy attitude of Mr Massev towards the Bristol :and Dominion Producers' .Association, which was tiie iirst bod- iv warn the Government of the approaching crisis, is held to he equally inexplicable. Last Saturday Mr 11. G. Hill, gener.d manager «»( the association in Nmv Zealand, sent a telegram to the Prime Minister (then at Auckland) nlVcring in accept the same offer on behalf of his association as the Goermnent had made to the freezing companies—to pay &000. tlis Government- paying £S(KO, thus enabling the steamer Suffolk to com.- to Xew Zealand in ballast—and woal.i further undertake to load the steamer at as lusny ports in the Dominion as : possible as to spread relief to the various freezing works. ■'Yesterday Mr Hill, who is here at present, received the following reply : from the 'Prime "Minister:—'lt ii quiio impossible to make the offer vou sag- j gest.'

Prominent men in the freezing business here state that they cannot understand why the Government should refuse such a jenerous o(Tcr of help, when the position is developing so seriously every day, with heavy losses facing the Dominion,

"The Pareora and SinithHeld works are just about to close down. From 4(10 t,o •WO men will be thrown out of rmnlovment. Tt is understood that the Belfast and Fairfield works, affecting another to OftO men close down to-morrow."