MEAT FOR BRITAIN

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 107, 2 November 1916, Page 8

MEAT FOR BRITAIN

Discussing the proposed new, arrangement with the Imperial Government, forthe purchase of New Zealand frozen meat air. A. A. Ross, president of the' Auckland provincial branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, stated (says the New. Zealand Herald) that it was- an ?£ rOr T.t ° suPPOSe that the:'producers of the Dominion had expressed dissatisfaction with the prices they had been receiving. They had made no complaint on that score, although those-prices, had been a good deal lower than the market rates. " One cause of complaint on the part of the New Zealand farmers," said Mr. Ross, "is that the Imperial Government has been selling all the New Zealand meat not required for military purposes to middlemen at what it cost,- plus expenses. That is a good deal less than the market rates in the Old Country, and the balance goes to the middlemen. . Tha Imperial Board.of Trade takes the attitude that it has bought the meat and that the producer here.has no more'say in the matter." We differ, contending that we are supplying 'the meat at less than the market rates, and therefore, to a certain extent, look upon it as a gift to the Imperial Government for Imperial purposes. Instead of that it is giving it away to the middlemen. My idea'is that the Imperial Government.should sell-the surplus New Zealand meat on its own account at market rates, .-and then the whole benefit would go to the public purse. The Imperial Government has so ' lar, however, declined to alter its pro- ' cedure. . r