THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2723, 12 October 1887, Page 2

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

It is worth while just to. look for a moment at the industry that i&thus' laid for "by the Government, There is always so much tak among.a, cartain class of ill-informed people about" the bloated squattor," that 1 suppose the Treasurer thought any tax on a shoep industry waa sure to be popular. 1 think "he forgot that & very large proportion of the farmers throughout the colony are interatal .in frozen meat. In Canterbury I MM? that small farmers, as wellas large cros, sond sheep to Belfast; aud, moreover, every man who raises stock nt iJI is benefitted by the outlet .provided by tho Freezing Company; so lam sural speak to hearing ears on this matterWell, what are the- factst-Whv, that the frozen meat exported, has. paid" at as high a rate of taxation as anything produced in tho country. In annual liceneo fee, property tax, duty on lubriceMiig oil, and stamps on bills of lading, tlifcjjftntorbury Frozen Meat Company payfr£2oo a year, It pays £6O road rates on land that before its works were built only paid £3, The rail and wharf bharges on tho mutton shipped from Lyttelton amount to 8d por sheep, and aro one' Seventh of the whole of the Company's expenditure for slaughtering, freoring, and putting • on board. The traffic to and from tho Company's siding at Belfast during the year ending March 31st kt was 1,7000 nearly, exclusivo of the large passenger traffic incidental to. tho frequent" movements of the workmen, The Company's importance as a provider of - - seen in the. fact that it pays in wages. Every workman is worth money in taxation to tho colony, and there are more of thorn than are paid wages indirectly, for the company uses every year 3000 tons of native coal. And when all is"over, and tbemoat is on board ship,' the Government still gets a policy duty of Is onjvery £ 1(# of insurance,, which is worth something en a total insurance of £IOO,OOO. ■ These are the'.benofito tho export of frown meat upon the Colony ■ quite apart from the primary .go&d of-.-, finding a market for/shee^'.that : w6rild otherwise rot in tho'. farmers' useless and Unsaleable, and yet it'ia the ■ frozen meat industry, -that the Gjtf eminent singles QUb'ilj?s, apeoial • plioa, r appmohiug of .fln.Qouragement-and'fnehdsKip onth'eir lips.. Tho Stout-Vogel ide.aa-.of encouragV - inenlare unique, and perhaps ills jslsi ai-welTthey are.^Cant»rbnryPr«Bju