MEAT STORES FULL

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1920, Page 5

MEAT STORES FULL

A CRITICAL POSITION. '; The Auckland Star in a recent issue, states: Something like a crisis is ahead of the local meat export companies unless ' more ships are sent to take away tht ■carcases that are now glutting the stores. Added to this is, the prospect of further trouble next season if th*. Imperial Government insists on termini ating the commandeer. The meas stores are now all but full, and tit* companies are killing at only about one third of the usual' rate, in the hopf that it will not be necessary •to dost down and throw a, large part pf thei* hands out of employment. Unless the Auckland Farmers' 'Freezing Co. Audi, ceeds in shipping away 60,000 boxes dt butter this week, killing will have t* cease very shortly at ita WeetttelJ works. The immediate trouble Confronting th|V meat industry—shortage of antes—j* due mainly to anhuiparalleled glut if meat in the Port of London. T)J stores there arc full; and ships aMifaeUt up in the stream, waiting to diadauS further cargoes. It is not clear whether the same conditions prevail at JBriittol and other West of England port*, ftttfc* fair assumption is that they do. The future difficulty, no leas gtwt, U that when the Imperial meat purchase ends on June 30 there will be abotitf 2,000,000 carcases of the Imperial. Governments meat in store in the Bo*' minion. Unless this meat is fetf Lack to some extent, next seaaJdV ''free" meat will not reach the Homemarkets for a long while. The Imperial Gpvernment, which controls shipping, ie entitled to claim precedence of export for its own meat, and if it does so the situation will be very serious. Everything just now is very uncertain, btttt there is every prospect of developments, within a short time.% WHOLE FUTURE NOT DABR <

Mr J. Amhiiry, managing director of : : the Auckland Farmers' Freezing Co., laid that the Prime Minister's statements deserved, attention, 'because Je kn«w more about the Imperial Government'* doings than any of the exporters- Thet» was no doubt that the, situation at ilome was serious. A letter received that day (Tuesday) from London stated that the congestion, of goods extendad beyond the docks and stores to the railways, and that goods took anything »p to a month to reach their destination*, after passing into the hands of the raftway people. "So far as I can see, onr < meat must be travelling by motor, not * by train," he added. , The main reason why meat was aeon. . initiating'in Britain, Mr. Awbury con. i sidered, was that there was no chance * ft getting rid of accumulnicd war - stocks by shipping to the Continent in J long as foreign exchanges were in their ~ present confused state. Central Eu- ' rope badly needed meat, but with the '' exchange so very much against ttem, the inhabitants could not afford to buy meat from Britain in any .manttty - Regarding the cessation of the W penal Government's purchase contract. Mr Ambury said that he had few fear* "bout a lack of refrigerated ships when the contract ended in June. Tonnao* was increasing more rapidly than' ex« ports, and there was no reason to think tiiat the Imperial Government would treat New Zealand less fairly than it had Ji the past. He thought that M* Masseys suggestion that a deliberate ettort was being made to create friction between the New Zealand producer. and the Imperial Government -km rather far-fetched. '

If only the immediate trouble* cool* be sot over the future was safe enoughs but now the local cold stores werell full, and unless 50,000 boxes of iutte? were got away in a few days as arranged, killing would have to cease, aSf n large proportion of the hands would he thrown out of employment, while for the same reason—lack of spaed—the dairy factories would have tc be toldl to forward no more butter for storage.