THE ARGENTINE AS A RIVAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3126, 1 March 1909, Page 4

THE ARGENTINE AS A RIVAL.

Speaking at the Arbitration Court at Chri3tchurch on Thursday, during the hearing of the Enginedrivers' Dispute, Mr VV. Murray, manager of the Christchurch Meat Company, referred to the state of the New Zealand frozen meat trade and the advance made by the Argentine. Mr Murray said that those who were familiar with the frozen meat trade on which the prosperity of New Zealand largely depended, knew that every sheep exported trorn New Zealand to England was worth approximately at least 2s 6d less than it was worth some short time ago. He did not wish to say that the depieciation wo J Id be permanent. For many years in New Zealand it had been stated that the competition of the Argentine would be felt sooner or later. Lately the Argentine had been advancing more and more in the meat trade, and now it was admitted that it had practically taken premier

place. In Argentina land was cheaper, labour was cheaper, and the produce was not half the distance from the markets that the New Zealand produce was, so that the producars coull and did accept prices that were much lower than those that would be satisfactory to New Zealand, especially in view of the present valuation of the land and wages of labour. Fortunately New Zealand had had a second line of trade in the exportation of lamb. Two years ago Argentina's export of lamb was a mere bagatelle —only 60,000 carcases; in the following year an increase brought the number up to 90,000 carcases, but last year to the surprise of many people, though not of those familiar withjthe trade, the export jumped to 290,000. In other words Argentina had trebled its export of lamb in twelve months. Australia was also going forward. For years New Zealand had had a powerful competitor in Australia, and would have it in the future. As matters stood at present it was obvious that New Zealand was not going to have the command of the tradfc that it had enjoyed in past years.