AMERICAN BEEF SUPPLIES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 222, 12 June 1908, Page 3

AMERICAN BEEF SUPPLIES.

■; : ' THE RESHIPMENTS. : The reshipments of 'American, beef back from Britain, reported by cablegram in our issue of yesterday,-recalls to one's 'minrl an incident of the former occasion (end of March); when reshipment was reported. On that : occasion'the British • Admiralty,' ,; decid-' iiig to clear off some old stocks, offered large ] quantities- of tinned American meat for sale by auction. The prices' offered,;by- British firms, were stx ridiculously low that the representatives .of the' American firm which originally supplied the goods bought them in, and took them back to America,'rather'than let them get put upon-the market *"at the low prices, that would have resulted.' In'connection with the apparent Amen-; can shortage, a letter received this week in. Wellington from a London representative of an American beef company' stated-.that on ' account'.of the, high prices ruling in .the United States the exports of beef and other products from there are. light. The same writer' remarks that' prices of live sheep in. Argentina, are • high,' and, 'therefore, the cost of mutton when delivered' in England was higher than usual, all. of which, tends to keep the general market in England' at a high level,. , _ . The former reshipments 'of canned- meat from Great Britain'are referred ;to in the .last number of the "Review of the River Plate." This journal states that there' was no scarcity of . cattle in the United States, but a scarcity of coin, owing to the financial crisis. For lack of funds, the large moat-packing firms in Chicago could not purchase sufficient beasts' for their requirements, - and had partially to shut down their works. The export of live stock and frozeii meat to Great 'Britain from America went ori; without interruption, and as long as that class; of export' showed no falling off there was not likely to be any unusual demand for Argentina meat. It is pointed out by .the "Review" that the .Australian, trade-in .frozen mutton and rabbits is . one which most affects Argentina; and that any falling off in those shipments is beneficial to the republic. Rabbits, it'appoars, interfere with the-sale of tho low-grade mutton from the Plate. It is evident that certain trade movements in -Australia are closely watched by in' South America. According to the above sourco of, information, the Chicago Swift combine is about to acquire''another-, Argentine freezing works, and thus increase the grip of the American meat trust on one of the. world's food supplies. The. progress,of this trust in Great Britain -threatens to extinguish independent salesmen, and the time is not far distant wlien Chicago operators will regulato the price of all meat' throughout the Uuited Kingdom.