ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 303, 19 December 1912, Page 6

ANGLO-COLONIAL NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent,) G LONDON, Novtanber 15. < i JN.Z. EGGS IN LONDON. ] The first consignment of New Zealand i eggs for this season arrived in Lond°° on Monday by the a- Turakina. -They were delivered on Wednesday and sold , i to the trade the following day. Ihe « packages were* a great improvement on previous experiments, but there is still ' room for further improvement. The condition of the consignment was < very good, and the quality perfect. They were a much larger egg than previous shipments, and certainly had more <■ colour. Both of these are important | < points with the London dealer. Having tested the eggs by boiling, they proved ' to be as good an egg as is possible -o get on the London market at this time \ of the year, the flavour being very rich, and the yolk and white a perfect colour. The eggs were carried in cool chamber, had no preparation on the shells whatever, and when opened up looked as good as any English new laid. At the moment 'this trade is in its infancy, but in a few years' time, if the production increases to an extent to enable shippers to see a fair margin of profit, a big 'trade should be done in the future. The Turakina. shipment was consigned by a Dunedin firm to H. A. Lane and s Co., Ltd.. Tooley Street, and the price \ they realised, 13/ net per 120, must c be considered satisfactory. AN IMPERIAL NECESSITY. ' Some very interesting evidence in - favour of an independent '"All British , Cable" between the United Kingdom and j; Canada—the course of which should not |, be made known to the public for obvious reasons —was given at yesterday's sitting of the Dominions CommLsion by , Mr. Charles Bright, consulting electrical engineer to the Commonwealth of Aus- , tralia. ' Mr. Bright stated that the efficient and reliable inter-Imperial telegraphic.. communication should, in his opinion, be regarded as a vital need of the Army j; and Navy, to which it was a necessary j; strategic adjunct. He drew particular | ; attention to the fact that in the spring . of the present year all the British tele- j graphic cables crossing the North At- |: lantic passed into the hands of a foreign j ■ company. Thus, although Great Britain ; was the pioneer in submarine telegraphy, i not a single one of the thirteen cables j between the Unitejd Kingdom and Can- •'. Ada was now under British jurisdiction. Such a state of affairs was, in hla j opinion, prejudicial to the interests of \ the Empire, and in the event of a mis- j understanding, might easily assume an I even graver aspect. In the event of war, j ! was it desirable that the vital comnraniI cations of the Empire should be in the hands of a foreign corporation? I As things were, the route upon which I we might depend in time of national I danger was that of the Eastern cables; I and those cables had vulnerable points. ; I Should this route be disturbed anywhere, | the Empire might be left without the j I mpwn* of arranging joint Imperial I action. Thus, he maintained that the I advisability of an independent, All-Bri- j tish line between the United Kingdom . ■ and Canada—to be laid without making : public its course—was, for the reasons ; indicated, more than ever accentuated. Largely owing to the present position , of affairs in regard to the trans- i Atlantic cables, the United States, hei 1 understood, controlled Canadian news sources to a great extent. To have to accept Canadian news through an | • American filter was scarcely satisfac- j tory, more particularly when it was remembered that the United States was a competitor with the Mother Country' for Canada. An Imperial telegraphic I system between Great Britain and Canada would be of the utmost benefit I for encouraging trade between the Mother Country and Canada. Such an Imperial cable would also tend to counteract the effect of the Panama Canal in directing trade towards America rather than the British Empire. So far as land cable across Canada was concerned, he understood that the Grand i Trunk Pacific railway (which was entirely independent of the American telegraph system) was willing to lay a : line in association with a proposed rail- ' way from the Atlantic to the Pacific , Oceans, tapping all the main towns of Canada. ! The cost of the proposed cable link ; would be £500,000, or only about that of a single unarmoured cruiser. Its value from the national and Imperial point of view would be incalculable. I Mr. Bright added that he would not like to depend on wireless telegraphy for strategic purposes, or jp time of I war, as the only means of communicat- | ing with Canada. In his view, the only i one safe and reliable means of com—uni- | cation lor tha Empire would be a cable, : laid secretly, both ends of which would be under Dritiah control. | Asked why he would not be in favour j of wireless, Mr. Bright said, although wireless was excellent in certain rej spects, he should not like to rely upon I it for important Imperial messages. When sending an important message he , would like to know who was at the other end, and how many ends there were. BEWARE OP THE BEEF TRUST. The sources of the oversea meat suppliers of t'hs United Kingdom and the j threatened operations of the American Beef Trust wesre the principal subjects ; of the evidence taken by the Dominions j I Royal Cki-mmissdon last Thursday. Mr | I George Gc-ousir. of MicS-rs Wc-d-del and. j j Co. was the c.'.-ipf witneiiis. He stated that the United Kingdom provided about, two-third- of its own nie-.it supplies, and of the remaining third rather more than one-half came from the Argentine, and rather less than one-haJf from Australia and New Zealand. About 95 per cent, of the world's frozen meat came to i Great Britain. The immediate effect | upon the English market of any exten- | sive opening up of the Continent to the I frozen meat trade would undoubtedly be | considered a curtailment of shipments to -the United Kingdom, with subserraent I higher prices. The operations, of the alleged American Beei Trusc might, Mr Goodsir th.ought, be fittingly described as an attempt on the part of foreign capita' to obtain control of the British kn- ; ported meat trade, regardless of British interests. In the United States during the past decade or two the large operators in meat had succeeded in stifling compestiiion and restricting trade to &uch an extent that North America, once an : extensive meat export—ig conip_ny, was now practdcally closed to export—a result which -had beein _s_istjed, of course,' - by the rapid inoreatse of 4ihe -popnlaiaoiu. In *he Argentine Repa_tic it_te members of the same (group already owned wr controlled alanoet half the output of the . State; while- wi_hin the past twelve i. _onthft their opesratao—i had been extended io Australia, wisre 4_»j ware

organ—in g their forces and jt—king prepa_—i—_ with a view to obtaining an entrance into the trade between that ce<_ltry and the _Ic*_eri__d. So far, there was no evidence that sfchey had res—ched "New Zealand, but it might be only a of months before their influence was also felt in that Dominion. Experience in the United States and elsewhere had proved that the success . of a coenrbinatson each as the American Beef Truet couM not but have a destri- , men—l effect upon producers, and c6nsamers alike. Although their policy at first might eaamestimes be to cut profits-to a. mmdin trm, and even, on occasions, to work at a loss, laterr on, as .the monopoly . of the trade was secured, they were in a position to squeeze the producer a-t one end and .the consumer a-t the other. In conclusion, Mr Goodsir exprcjstsed the opinion that, apart from the operations of the Beef Trust, continued high pricess j ■might be e?xpected to prevail in the Eng- < lish mesai market, as regarded both dm- ; ported and Home-grown meat.