BIG STOCK DEALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1917, Page 8

BIG STOCK DEALS.

OPERATIONS IN HAWKE'S BAY. REMARKABLE PRICES. Napier, November 14. The lending stations in the Hawke's Bay district have contracted, with buyers who are believed to represent the Meat Trust to sell the whole of their bull calves for the next four years, and stock-raisers in nil parts of the province have contracted to sell their heifer calves for a similar period at varying rates. Sometimes prices as high as £8 at two months, and sometimes .£7 at a week old arc said to have been offered. The buyers are' very active and these apparently absurd prices are being'embodied in contracts weekly. Though the buyers do not desire New Zealand mutton particularly, they have been obliged to take over a good deal of it.

It was mentioned in Parliament that tie price being offered for lambs in Hawke's Bay was above the market rate. This is , the explanation: The farmers have refused to contract for their future beef unless the buyer took over their mutton, sometimes at a penny a pound above the export value. It is stated that the buyers were known to get their money back by refusing to supply the Government with beef unless an extra penny, say, was paid on mutton. This last statement cannot be confirmed, but instances of (lie tightening of the monopoly is common talk both in town and country.