ARMOUR AND CO.’S LICENSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 June 1921, Page 5

ARMOUR AND CO.’S LICENSE.

(Reprint of Leading Article from the Sun, Christchurch, May 30, 1921.)

It is not surprising that the United States Government should inquire why New Zealand is singling out certain American firms and placing arbitrary restrictions upon them in the conduct of their business. There is nothing to prevent any New Zealand capitalist from going to America, and, as long as he complies with the laws of the country, being free to engage in any business he pleases, and enter into competition with any firm in the United States. The Americans welcome new capital, and like to meet the kind of competitor who can teach them something. Naturally they cannot understand why New Zealand should seek to boycot t an American firm which scrupulously observes the laws of the. Dominion and is engaged in a perfectly legitimate business. The Sun has already exposed the humbug and political dishonesty of the campaign against Armour and Co., and it regrets to see that a fair-minded man like Sir Francis Bell should be placed in the awkward position of having to defend tactics and condone a policy for which some of his wrong-headed colleagues and their departmental advisers are responsible. The position briefly is th'at Armour and Co. are buyers and exporters of meat. Their competition with other exporters ensures that the farmer gets a better price for his stock than he would if the Americans were not represented in the Dominion. The fact has been abundantly demonstrated during the past year or so, and the farmer who cannot see it has no more brains than one of his own sheep. Unfortunately sundry politicians (including Mr. Massey) and the. head of the Agricultural Department, are the victims of an obsession that Armour and Co. desire to capture the whole of the New Zealand meat trade, so that they will have the producer in their power. It is an absurd and ridiculous obsession, which merely reflects on the intelligence of the men who entertain •it. There are so many strongly established New Zealand and English companies engaged in buying, freezing and exporting New Zealand meat that Armour and Co. have no more chance of buying them out and cornering supplies than of flying to the moon. So far Armour and Co. have made no effort to acquire even a pig-sty in New Zealand, let alone a killing and refrigerating plant.. Their activities are confined to buying and exporting, and their operations are of the greatest advantage to the farmer, particularly at a time when prices are down and any competition that will put an extra halfpenny a pound on the export price of meat is the equivalent of a golden shower on the community. There was once a pawky old Scotch lecturer on medical jurisprudence who used to s'ay hajlf-jestingly to his students: “If you are ever led to tell a lie in the witness box, for goodness sake stick to it.” It is unfortunate for Armour and Co. that in Mr. Maasey and Dr. Reakes of the Agricultural Department the Dominion has two men who, when they find they have made a mistake, are determined to brazen it out, regardless of the injustice they perpetrate, and the harm they do to the community. Both have been wrong all through the piece about Amour and Co. Mr. Massey thought he was currying favor with the farmers by posing as the protector of the meat-producer against the “Meat Trust’’, which was alleged to be lurking round the corner waiting the chance to swallow him up. The Prime Minister was induced to take up this attitude in the first place by powerful political friends interested in the freezing and export concerns which might reasonably be supposed to benefit by the absence of Armour and Co.’s competition. If the head of the Agricultural Department had been a little more broad-minded and far-seeing he could, perhaps, have saved Mr. Massey from his friends, and advised against the adoption of a policy which has injured the farmer instead of benefiting him, which has made the Dominion look ridiculous, and has involved it in an awkward discussion with the Foreign i Affairs Department of a friendly na[tioa,—lAdvt