THE PRICE OF MEAT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 252, 17 July 1908, Page 7

THE PRICE OF MEAT.

■ AN AWKWARD QUESTION. ADMITTANCE OF STORE CATTLE. A DEPUTATION. ' ■ (ay association —copyright.) : (Rec. July 16, 10,44 ,p.m.) London, July 16. An influential deputation urged' tho Gov« ornment to appoint a comrnittoo to. inquire into the cattlo. and meat supply. Thoy also asked for the free importation of. Canadian store cattle, and tho admission of cattlo, to bw slaughtered on arrival, from all countries that are officially declared free from dis. i OiVSO. . The Prime ■ Minister, Mr. Asquith, in a sympathetic reply,; said that tho question was one of importance. He proposed ; to consult'tho President of tho Board of Agriculture (Lord Carrington), and the President of tho Board of Trade (Mr. Churchill); before coming to a decision. '"PROTECTION IN DISGUISE. " i : STRONG TALK IN THE:CANADIAN . ■. . PARLIAMENT. Tho request of tho deputation is being urged on .the British Government on the one hand by retailors find consumers who. are alarmed at the increased prices of beef, and on the other hand, by the Cauadiau producers. ' It was oabled yesterday that several Conservative (Opposition) members of the Dominion House of Commons urged that the preference granted by,. Canada to Britain was usoless, and asked whether it could be withdrawn, as retaliation for Britain s embargo on Canadian cattle. Tho Minister for Finance, Mr,; Fiolding, replied: We could, but I think it would bo unwise." The temper of Canada on the subject is illustrated by the - above and by a debate which occurred in the Canadian Senate in February, when.comment, was mado on tho reported declaration by Lord Carrington (with whom Mr. Asquith wjll now consult) that ho would never consent to the removal of the embargo-on Canadian cattle: AMinister (11k. Scott, Secretary of State), said that-the fear . of contagion by tho importation of .Canadian cattle was a convenient pretext for the protection' of British stook-raisers against competition, from Canada, without admitting the ' abandonment of free trade. .Sir Mackenzie Bowell,.tho former Premier, said that members of the British Parliament had confided to him that the ombargo was a pretence, and was really designed for the protection of the Britysfy cattle-raising industry., , THE OTHER SIDE. ' i The opposite point of view is'pnt by a correspondent to " The - lines,-' who—whether he has a brief for the British stockrniser of not— is strongly against.v admitting Canadian store cattle,: .He writes: ''It must not'he forgotten that we are now in receipt; of the best of tho cattle that Canada can afford to sond U3 after thoy are fed, that the Canadian farmer is not going to let us have his best cattle, which he can finish more cheaply at home than we,could hero. . . . As,soon as the countrybecame'dependent upon'the introduction, of store cattlo for, its home beef supply (and that dependence would assurodly como with the inevitable'.'decadence,'of tho homo breeding of cattlo) tho marke- would'be brought under the regulating influence of the big butchers or the American l beef .trusts, who have for years controlled,, for their own .advantage, and at tho expense of the breeder and the consumer' alike, the main branches of the meat' trado of both the States and Canada. The writer argues that if the door be opened to Canada, it will be only a matter of time till it is open to the whole world. He, thinks Britain should be content with taking'" as much Of the finished produot of good quality as the foreign or colonial prolucer, cares to send us in the only safe and en-, tirely satisfactory way—tho, refrigeration chamber."';'. , '