THE MEAT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 September 1917, Page 8

THE MEAT INDUSTRY.

THE SHORTAGE OF SHIPPING. Freezing companies throughout Now Zealand are very much exorcised over the question of providing additional cold storage, owing to the iack of shipping facilities, which promise to lie more acute this year than was the case last year. The local freezing company is : faced with the necessity' of providing , extra storage at the Smart Head works. ami to do so additional capital is re- ' quired. Mr. J. (_'. Cooper, mana'.'or of the Wellington Tanners' Freezing L'om'pany, who acts in an advisory capacity for the local company, is at present ad- :. dressing a series of meetings tlirough- * out Taranaki, pointing out the scrious- ; ness of the position. lie spoke at ; t'renui on Monday, at Okato ye-terday, i and will speak at Inglewood to-day. At I Okato yesterday, as at I i-enui, fiis re- ; marks found an attentive audience. Mr. ' J. Quin, chairman of directors of the J local company, presided. 5 ' Mr. Cooper, at tin; commencement of | his address, said he intended, to place ? before them some facts which ho thought Sthey. as producers, ought to knew about the serious shortage of shipping, and < the prospects of geting their produce 3 iwny during the coming season. They | had already heard a good deal about the jj shipping shortage, as the subject had I been well canvassed, and it was very | serious. Though our shipping losses were « not at present as heavy as they were * some time ago, they were still tremend--6 ous, namely, 70 merchant ships per f month—that was apart from Trench., k Italian and neutral losses. This had a * very serious effect upon the shipping of c the world. It 'was not only the number f of ships that had been sunk, there was | also considerable loss of time owing to E the precautions which had to be taken in I guarding as far as possible against sub- | marines. Further, a vast quantity of i cur shipping, about Li per cent., was re- | quired to feed the army with foodsttiii's I and munitions of war, and as (he armies a iij. France and other war zones grow | so (lie demands upon shipping liocam.c a greater and greater. There was thus in 1 the world's trade a great shortage of J shipping. Statements had been made that the shortage was not a real one, and that the shi]reiiig could be adjure!od " to suit all requirement. This w.c; not so. A letter .which lie had received from his London manager a few dec-, ago showed that the people m England realised the effects of the shortage, because under the food regulations a family or five was allowed : ;',ll> of sugar per week, and potatoes on one day per week. They hail sttfiieient bread of n kind, fo mi--1 nutritious that the young and old people ■nrre becoming sick rapidly. Meat '-.as bringing :'s per lb, and but for the fact that the Food Contro'ler had fixed the price it would have soared to .Is. Our ships had been diverted and :ent ; to America for wheat. To enable additional wheat to be grown, sheep were being depleted bv some millions-, and e.iitie bv' the thousands. These w-vc being killed off at the present time, and' .fin;,' put into cool stores to take the piece of New Zealand frozen meat, which had been going Home in the past. This was equivalent to one whole year's supply from. New Zealand, de-l now. f:icr'-.oro. England was supplying horsoif with all the meat she required. This was having a double cil'eet. It relieved a number of «hips to engage in the carriage of other necessary food-tun's for the people at Home, and at the sane lime it relieved us of those shins iwhieh were nece,ssary for the carriage of oar produce. ' We were, therefore, right ri> against it now. He urged on them tiie advisability of placing their bauds in their pockets to construct stnrane to ■hold their season's supply, as it would take the whole of the summer and well into the winter to clear the frozen meat at present in cool store. They had been told that seventeen boats would b' available to take their produce, ten of which would arrive in September. These, however, he did not think would materialise until well into October. At Waiwakaiko their works were full at the end of lite season. Since then SSOO carcases bad been sent away, and probably not. more than anotlrer io.OOO would 'ue got away before tlic season opened. The posit ion mas, therefore, a very serious one for the farmers, who, lie pointed out, had benefited greatly by the enhanced prices for cattle caused by the extra competition due to the establishment of the works. All over New Zealand freezing companies were arranging to enlarge their works, and he detailed what was beine- done at his own works, where he had a mandate from the settlers to provide all the required storage and they would find the money. He also mentioned what was being done at Christchurch, at Gisborne. at Wairoa. and elsewhere. Not only cold storage, but storage for wool, tallow, pelts, etc., had to be provided, and he took it for granted that the settlers of Taranaki would realise the position just as other par!.. were doing: that they would realise that if they wanted any assistance they would have to help themselves, lie knew of no additions to cool storage tor meat being carried out in this district. The Government, Realising the necessity for assistance, was prepared to assist freezing and other cool storage companies requiring that assistance, so that so far as the works at Waiwakniho were concerned, the directors could go straight 'abend with the buildings, but the extent of the Government assistance had to be coveted by share capital or other means, as it had' to be paid back in the course of time. Their directors proposed io ta>j; advantage of this offer. Whatever was done had to be done at once, as the storage must be provided. The Imperial authorities guaranteed payment for every pound of meat in cool store, no matter if it was not shipped for years to come, and the banks would advance on it. The hides at the works had been sold and pai, l for, and they had ulsn sold their wool. Tlrcy had dealt, with a large quantity of the produce of the-district, but unless additional storage was provided, the businev practically would be at a standstill Taeranaki'had one great '.advantage, for whuV a lot of the in-■ei-eased accommodation tliat was being provided at some of the y/orks would not U -required after the war, the additions to the Taranaki farmers' works would be required. This wa« a rapidly growting district, so that anything they did ffcouhl only be anticipating the require\ments which were bound to come, and yould, therefore, be a safe and sound investment. He strongly advised I he farmers to help themselves by supporting their directors in providing additional storage. At ["rerrui the previous day, though the weather was against them, the settlers present, realising 'what they were up .-gainst, all agreed to double their holding, and he trusted that Okato settler, would .'b> the same. Mr. Qnin --"/i'.'fed out that. ;.h» fiovc-rn- '. rront won! l ' ,-..;vaucc tip to f.~"vd(i fori jtwo year.-, or. ijo guarantee oi theij-1 ] unciliad capital . i

Mr. AY. J. Gray asked whether ifc would not lie wise to erect part of the proposed additions at the breakwater, where it'would he. available for tim storage of cheese and butter, when not required for meat after the war. Mr. .). C. Cooper recognised that the idea was a good one, bub he pointed out that they had sufficient refrigerating I machinery at the Smart Road works, where all that was required was an additional building, because when erecting the works the directors installed machinery powerful enough to permit of additions being made from time to time. Mv. W. J. Gray stated lie had a gricvanee. lie hud been led to uudersiand when'{akin;; up shares that the works were belli": built from a patriotic point of view. Mr. Cooper: Commercial. Mr. Cray understood that it was for the patriotic purpose of supplying meat for the munition workers and the soldiers, 'whereas they had opened local butchers' shops in the towns and were [supplying theap meat to commercial men. the idle rich and the working men, whil■■'. I lie farmer had to eat the dual purnc >' cow. lie believed if they erected freezing works it should be for their own beneiit and the benefit of the men fighting, and not for the men who stayed at homo. { Mr. Cooper pointed out that as far as the works were concerned they were not supplying any local butcher's shop. The Government of the day had compelled certain work's to hand over a quantify of meat for local consumption, and if the Government, did that regarding New Plymouth, he did not know how they could object. Mr. Willoughby: The Government have bought the meat. What does it matter? Mr. Quin. in moving a vote of thanks, pointed out that the works had been established and direct shipping had become an accomplished fact. All that was required Was a few thousand pounds of extra capital to onablo them to build cool storage, which was in their own interests. They had the machinery required, and cement had not advanced much. Labor was" certainly Idiiiicult to obtain, but all difficulties ; could be surmounted and the storage i space finished in time for the season. |At present it looked as if the season would start with their accommodation two-thirds full. If they erected the storage, their cattle could be sold and paid for; it not, the cattle would remain in the paddocks, because the shortage was applicable to all works. The bal-unce-shcet would show that they had made a loss of ,-C:ill.>, lie considered they were lucky to get oh" so lightly; in fact, many considered their losses would be very heavy. Shareholders, he remarked, had obtained a, good many thousands of their own back as the result of Ihe competition provided by the establishment of the works. He instanced that Hie year previous they received las for their picked lambs, whereas this year they received. 245. Cattle, too, showed an advance of £". per head, whereas meat hud only advanced '/.d per !'o. lie pointed out that new shares could be taken up on the basis of 10s application and -s allotment, and the balance in call-, if required, and he made a strong appeal to all to assist in the erection of the storage required in their own intcre-'l-'. Mr. Kiru' stressed the point that they must net at once if they wished to avail themselves of the Government money, because every freezing company was after this. The banks would not be able to lend the money, as they were temporarily exhausted by the war loan, which had been successfully floated., and for iv.hich they provided a good deal of tli"'monev. Mr. \V.' 11. Wright, said that the directors bad taken up 2IXN) additional .shares, lie also staled that at a meeting at Kawa, Kawa i'S men had taken up IS,CO» shares in a freezing works, as (hey saw that they were right up against it. ' He considered that farmers got the beneiit nut of the works by the increased value of their stores and wcaiiers also, Mr. Gray seconded the vote of thanks, which was carried with applause. Ho also suggested that the meeting should pledge itself to take up shares equivalent to what fhey had already taken up. Mr. <). ('. Cooper, in responding to the vote of thanks, said the directors had figned a joint and several guarantee for .ClTCyjiiO and bad provided additional accommodation at the works last year, which just saw them through. .Mr. Council, secretary, was present and was kept busy receiving applications for additional shares, nearly 3UU being applied for.