PRODUCE PROSPECTS

Evening Post, Volume xc, Issue 79, 1 October 1915, Page 2

PRODUCE PROSPECTS

BUTTER, CHEESE, AND MEAT. Referring to an article in The Post yesterday on speculation in meat (the subject- of recent meetings at Gisborne), Mr. A. L. Wicks, of Wellington, said it was quite certain that, notwithstanding his connection '''with the Colonial Consigning and Distributing Co., all who knew Sir Montague Nelson, the chairman of the Imperial Meat Committee, would never connect him with the matters complained of by Gisborne farm&rs. The New Zealand meat secured by the Imperial Meat Branch was th,e property of the Imperial Government, which reserved all meat required for the troops and handed the surplus [ over to distributors on a commission basis. Mr Wicks did not think from what he saw that the English retail price of New Zealand meat was more than l^d to 2d per pound above the wholesale price The prospects of botb butter and cheese were exceptionally good. Farmers, he thought, would obtain last year's average, and a little more, for their produce He saw some American cheese^ — not the famous "red" cheese of the States — that was shockingly made, most peculiar cheese. It had beeD taken because 'cheese commanded any price, but much of it was so bad that it had to be returned. It was impossible. But for the extraordinary demand it would never have had a hope of the London ! market. The Port of London Authority had made magnificent arrangements for the reception of frozen meat at the Royal Albert Docks. Here a vast building, divided into two parts, was erected •in reinforced concrete. The one part was a huge sorting department and the other a freezing store capable of taking 500,000 carcases. The endless band system of transport was used, saving handling and any rough usage of carcases. J The demand for frozen meat was enormous. Prices were good, because the working people were spending far more on meat than they had ever done before, having such greatly increased wages. The liberal rations of the British in France had caused a demand from French soldiers for similar treatment, and so there had been a great quantity of frozen meat (principally beef) bought for France. This caused the prices to rise in the first instance, and led to the commandeering of frozen meat outputs in Australia and New Zealand.