EXPORT OF MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1915, Page 8

EXPORT OF MEAT.

IPREMIER REPLIES TO A COUNTRY COMPLAINT. (By Telegraph—Special to News.) Wellington, Last Night. In the discussion regarding war taxation in the House this afternoon, several country members suggested that farmers ibad not fared as well since the Imperial Government commandeered meat as they would 'have done if markets had remained open. The Prime Minister made some interesting remarks upon this point. He said that a' suggestion had been made that farmers had suffered through the commandeering, and he would like to draw attention to several points. The prices that had been fixed were liberal and in advance of the rates that probably would have prevailed if there had been no war. Then hide, skin, and offal remained the property of the exporter, and that was a big consideration indeed. A moderate hide was worth fifty shillings at the present time, and a sheepskin was worth at least 7s 6d to 10s. The price for meat had been fixed on the basis of giving the seller 42s per 1001b. He believed that the price paid for Argentine mutton on the London market : was slightly in excess of that received by New Zealand growers, but probably that would be remedied. The growers .had to remember that they could not have got their meat to the market at all if the Imperial navy had not held ! the seaways open, and they had also to recollect ithe assistance given in other [directions. There had been an extreme ■ scarcity of shipping, and it would have been almost impossible for New Zealand to obtain the use of insulated steamers if the Imperial authorities had not commandeered all the available vesesls and distributed them as required. Freight paid by the Board of Trade / for the carriage of frozen meat amounted to about a halfpenny a pound above the I rate prevising prior to the war, but I New Zealand growers had not been re- ■ quired to pay any part of this extra I charge. He asked the growers to remember this. His (Mr. Masaey's) own efforts had been directed to holding the balance [/airly between the interested parties, I the Imperial Government, the New Zealsad growers, and the local consumers.