SUSPICIOUS MEAT BUYING.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1916, Page 5

SUSPICIOUS MEAT BUYING.

1 IS A TRUST OPERATING? Duncdln, Nov, 2. It has long be«n believed locally that the American meat trust has boor! operating somewhat extensively In .\ T cw Zealand for several yean, with considerable success. There arc agents in the markets, for example, who operate freely, without a limit to their purchasing power. Their instructions are merely to secure & share of meat for their companies, and they are not tied iloT'n to standardised limit. It ha 3 been notified that these agents are usually very much in evidence when big lots of meat are offered for sale, and that they invariably outbid the keenest and most tenacious competitors owing to the significant fact that they are backed by principals who apparently can afford not to worry about 'limits,' and they are not afraid to force aip prices—a •result that, of eouno, affects consumers in New Zealand. The principals of these unlimited ctsh buyers send meat Home, and have no brokers or handlers in New Zealand. The source of profit 13 London. They appear to have no difficulty in getting their purchases frozen in New Zealand, but one shrewd representative of the meat-buying trade* gives it as his opinion that to tackle the trtiit in New Zealand is to begin at the wrong end, and to court failure. There is need of investigation in London, to obtain information as to principal's and their methods at Home, A remedy could be effected if freezing companies were t<' refuse'to a:ccpt purchases of foreig, '' agents, hut lack of information ac to principals renders such action very delicate, und even dangerous. It ib admitted, indeed, that it is possible that even German firms to-day *r« buying New Zealand wool and produce. There is no way of proving it without knowledge of the principals in London and America, hence the need of closer investigation in London rather than a mere recital periodically of prices m -Home markets.