BIG STOCK DEALS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 44, 15 November 1917, Page 8

BIG STOCK DEALS

I. OPERATIONS IN HAWKE'S BAY REMARKABLE PRICES i By Telegraph—Press Association. Napier, November 11. ' The leading stations in the Hawke's Bay district have contracted with buyers, who are believed to represent the 'Meat Trust to sell the whole of their 'bull calves for the next four years, and stock-raisers in all parts of the province have contracted to sell ' their heifer calves for a similar period at varying Tates, Sometimes prices as high as £8 at two months, and sometimes at a week old are said to have been offered. The buyers ore very active and these apparently absurd prices are being em- . bodied in contracts weekly. Though the . buyers do not desire New Zealand mut- , ton particularly, ■ they have been obliged to take over a good deal of it, It was mentioned in Parliament that the price being offered for lambs in .. Hawke's Bay was above the market rate. This is the explanation: The farmers have refused to contract for their future .beef unless the buyer took over their mutton, sometimes at a penny a pound above the export value. It is stated that the buyers were known to get their money back by refusing to . supply the Government with beef unless an extra penny, say, was,paid on mutton. This last statement cannot be confirmed, but instances of the tightening of the monopoly, is common talk both in to'wn and country.