THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.
TO rilE KDITOR. Silt, —In your issue of April 27th you favour me by the insertion of a letter of mine on the above subject, and you honour mi! by a leading article 011 the said letter, and yet I urn not happy, and why ? First, bceause so staunch and true a friend to the fanning interest as yourself should now bo advising them to their detriment, and next because you say I said what 1 never have said, and appear to arrive at most extraordinary conclusions. The very opening paragraph of the leader contains a misstatement, which I would fain attribute to hurried persual of my letter. It says my letter is written " finding fault with the proposals of Messrs Nelson Bros., acting in conjunction with the direct jtoainsliip companies, etc." I did nothing of the kind. I found no fault with the arrangement, which was a thoroughly good business one, by thoroughly eood business men, on a thoroughly good business basis. Neither did I tind any fault with the purported arrangement between the various parties concerned, except with one clause of the conditions that required the shipper to bind himself to Nelson Bros, for a number of years, and with regard to the price charged for freight, et). Again, you says "it may ho clear to our correspondent that tho ocean freights charged by tho companies on our meat have led to tho depression." 1 slid nothing of the kind—what I did say was said in reference to freight on all nroduce, and what 1 did say was that it was " one of tho caiH'jH.'' There may have been !);)!) other causes, I only said it was one cause. Did time and inclination permit, Mr Editor, I could just as easily demolish your assertions as to the reasons of the increase of our shipped meat, and your other assertion that "the monopoly referred toby " I'armer" is fanciful," but I pass on to other matters. Mention is made of the fact that at first the freight on frozen meat was 2kl per lb, that was so, and what did it represent Why that the ono cargo of frozen meat paid the whole of tho cost of the special Machinery used in tho vessel ; modest, was it not! In mercy to yourself I pass lighly over your paragraph where you say that shippers of mutton would clear an average price, under the promised arrangements. of lid per lb, all the year round, although the price realised may be anything up to ;"id per lb., (what a beautiful arrangelnent) and I go on to your concluding paragraph, the one saved for the last on purpose to smash one into infinitesimal atoms by the aid of awfnl decimals ; and what do 1 find 'i I find that for meat sold at 4d, the grower would receive 2jd, and for meat sold at od fie would receive a fraction over 2kl. Reduce these prices to bed rock by "the cost of exchange and the 4 per cent, claimed on tho cold weight, and for all practical purposes, we arrrivo at the fact that the grower would receive 2d for meat sold at -Id and 21d for meat sold at od ; that means that tho total charges come to f>o per cent, of the amount realised ; it means that you must spend 2d to earn 2d ; it means that if a man sends 200 carcases home ho receives hack only what 100 carcases were sold for. [n tiie face of this we are told that it will be seen that the growers are to be fairly treated, and we are urged to sign a document that will bind us hand and foot to the piesent companies, and by frightening and starving away legitimate opposition, will leave us helpless in their hands to inerense tho cost of freight at any time at their own sweet will. — Y ours, etc., iMKMIiII.
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Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2622, 2 May 1889, Page 2
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658THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE. Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2622, 2 May 1889, Page 2
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