GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1921, Page 5

GENERAL NEWS.

FUTURE OF THE MEAT TRADE. In the Statist of April 16 there is an article on the meat trade in which some not over-friendly words of advice are given to Australia and New Zealand. The text of the article is a statement by Mr. Massey that the New Zealand ! meat trade cannot bear the extravagant freights now charged for the conveyance of meat between New Zealand and Britain. About the time that Mr. Massey said this there appeared in a London newspaper a telegram from Melbourne, announcing that “no ship, British or foreign, will be permitted to carry passengers or freight, between Great Britain and Australia unless it be licensed under the new Navigation Act, pays the crews Australian rate of wage, and provides the prescribed accommodation,” The Statist admits that Mr. Massey is not responsible for Australian actions, but says that: “Nevertheless the desire of Mr. Massey to reduce freight rates on meat, and the determination of the government of the Commonwealth to maintain freights in accordance with the provisions of the Navigation Act, cannot be reconciled in any practical way.” OIL WITHIN THE EMPIRE. Acting on the advice of Sir John Cadman, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company has decided to try to find oil in Western Australia, and has applied to the Parliament of that State to pass legislation enabling leases of not less than 100,000 acres in the aggregate to be available either on Crown or private lands. There is already a partnership agreement between the company and the Federal Government, under which it is proposed to establish a refinery in Victoria for the treatment of imported crude oil, pending the discovery of internal supplies of petroleum. The company proposes to undertake the distribution, as well as the raising and refining of oil, a side <f the business which has previously been carried out by other interests. It therefore requires new capital, and a meeting was recently held to authorise the creation of £'5,000,000 additional first preference shares, the conversion of the participating dividend on these shares, namely, 2 per cent., into permanent cumulative form, and also the creation of £10,000,000 second preference shares. At present the ordinary shareholders are the Burmah Oil Company, the British Government, and Lady Strathcona, and the only way in which the public has been able to obtain indirectly an interest in the ordinary capital was through a purchase of the shares of the Burmah Oil Company.