FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16702, 10 December 1919, Page 10

FROZEN PRODUCE LETTER.

I • J LESSONS FROM THE RAILWAY j STRIKE. VESTEY BROTHERS AND INCOME TAX BURDEN. (»£OU OCR SPCCTAL rORRKSPOVDEST.) TjONDON, Octobcr 14. The short duration of tho railway strike was sufficient to teach the nation ;i valtiablo lesson of how tho refrigerator stands at its back as an insurance against tho spectro of want. During iho ton days of railway traffic cessation, frozen moat supplies, which -were fortunately in superabundance in nearly every cold store throughout tho kingdom, were tho leading factor in the commissariat of tho big towns, homekilled meat boing reserved for local requirements. Moreover, it was cold storage which saved London its milk on tho first day of the striko, as train supplies were not possiblo. FOOiD DISTRIBUTION. Tho normal was very quickly roventod to when the railways started up again, l>nt an apparently permanent impulse has been given to tho road distribution /if food supplies by motor lorries. Twenty-five thousand of these wore organised iu a big land food dent by tho Food Controller, and Hvde Parli was inado virtually a gigantic garago for the scrvico in and out <>f London. So prominently, in fnct, did Hyde Park figure, that it has been proposed to erect a cold store thore in future, buiti the idea altogether lacks practicality Tho coastwise navigation service, which had previously been choked down by l'oolisn goods railway policy on the part of tho Government, wns rapidly resuscitated during the strike, nnd by this means tho out-ports of Southampton, Cnrdiff. Hull, etc., wore enabled to act :is natural centres of distribution for their big surrounding populations. ELIMINATING THE MIDDLE MAN. THe efforts which havo recently been made by the Trntles Ommi<wioiio* in of tho New South Wales Government to develop by moons of window advertising nt Australia House a direct trndo in Australian food products to rotailers, independent of the middleman, have, been followed by tho news hero that an offer has been made by tho Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Hughes, to assist Australian producers to reach markets direct bv tho etiminntion of tho middleman. The practicality of this proposal is altogether scouted by those in trade circles here. Tho idea has Won tried before on many occasions with negative results, from the time, as Now Zoalanders'Tvill know, of Mr Seddon's meat shops, which were certainly the boldest effort of their class. Moreover, this kind of campaign merely plays into the hands of the foreign food distributors in our midst, who gain a point every timo these efforts fail. SHI WILLIAM VESTEY ON INCOME TAX. New Zealanders will Temember how, a fow years ago, the Vcstoy brothers, Sir William Vestey and Mr E. H. Vestey, left England and becamo Amcncan citizens, because of the over--1 rearing burden of income tax, which was driving them out of competition with foreign meat interestsin this country. Not long sinco, Six William Vestcy oame over irom Chicago to give_ ervidcnco before the Royal Commission on incomo tax, and his testimony shows how iniquitous is tho way in which British capital is taxed out of tho United Kingdom by the folly of our policy. ° He stated that his companies' eapital totalled 20 million sterling, and that he, thorcfor'o, was the biggest competitor of tho American Beef Trust, with its 100 million sterling capital. Ho showed clearly that under the present tfvstem of British taxation, which favoured tho foreigner in our midst, tho American meat companies on moro than 00 per cent, of their business with England from their works outside America, pay no taxation whatever, and only a mere trifle on the remaining 10 per rent., while Messrs Vestey, if carrying mi their business from England, would hare to pav £82 18s per cent, on the profits if the foods were sold in England. or even if they were sold abroad and never saw England, a condition under which'it is obviously impossible to work. Sir William added that he and his brother would like verv much to bring thoir organisation to England and work from London instead of Chicago or Buenos Aires, but they could not do this unless they had equality of taxation •with tho American Beef Trust and tho Argentino meat companies. Until ten years ago, he continued, the American Beef Trust liad not one single freesing works outside tho United Stales. Since then they had built veiy many in differ-

ent parts of tho world, solely to supply the English market, and were now building freezing works at San Paulo, Santa Ana do Livramento, another quite near that place, and two at Rio Grnnd do Sul, all in Brazil, threo in Paraguay, and one in Santa Cruz. Patagonia, and had bought land and were about to commence the erection of anothor at Rosario do Santa Fe, in tho Anientino.Republic. The" were also commencing buildinc in Colombia, ho believed nt Bnrnnnuilla, also sending out material to build in South Africa, and had their men out acquiring sites in other countries. They had. to his knowledge, offered to buv important works in the colonies. All their works in the past had been built almost solely to snpnlv the Encrlish market. Wh'le all'this work was beine done by tho Trust, not one Enelish freezing works hod been built abroad by any other firm tKnn h'* own. It did seem to him that the preferences which were given in every no«s»ble wav to the American Beef Tmst by the Enrrlieb Government should be stopped nnd English firms given equality of treatment.