THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9554, 29 July 1909, Page 4

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Reference to our files of fourteen years ago, says the "Qtago Daily Times" shows that we concluded an article on the frozen meat trade by calling upon those engaged in the to consider whether by organisation co-operation, and consolidation it was not possible to cause the cessation of the sale of New Zealand mutton in London at 2sd per lb. The High Commissioner's cablegram published at the beginning of this week reports that on a weak market the current nominal quotations for New Zealand mutton were 2Jd per lb for North Island brands and 2|d for Canterbury brands. It appears a most unsatisfactory circumstance that, after a lapse of a decade and a half, it should be possible to record such a state of things in connection with so important a factor in the prosperity of the Dominion

as the frozen meat industry is. Today, as in 1895, the civilised wnrld is passing through a period of commercial depression bringing in its train the twin economic evils of unemployment and the curtailment of spending power. In the first instance the collapse in the meat market has been accentuated by several concurrent causes. The shipments of meat from New Zealand for the first six months of this year were unusually heavy—indeed, they constitute a record in the history of the industry. Australia, also, has furnished considerably more than her usual quota, and the production of the Argentine is ever increasing. The arrival of these heavy shipments on the top of tlie accumulations already in store in London has created something akin to a panic amongst meat vendors, with the result that prices have been forced down to an absolutely unprofitable level. Even when it is admitted, however, that the depression in trade would necessitate the price of meat in London dropping to a certain extent, it is by no means certain that, it might not have been contrived that the values should be maintained at a level which would give th'e producer some adequate return for his labours instead of leaving him faced with the prospect of a disastrous Joss. Indeed, the argument would appear to be well founded that by the very methods that were advocated in these columns fourteen years ago—viz., organisation, co operation, and consolidation—the dangers of the collapse which has now taken place might have been forecasted and avoiJtd.