The Hastings Standard Published Daily FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1897. THE HOOLEY POOL.

Hastings Standard, Issue 392, 6 August 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1897. THE HOOLEY POOL.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

From the Australian papers recently to hand we gather that the prospect of combining the meat companies is not wholly abandoned on the other side. It is true that Mr Hooley's scheme has not been acccepted ; but this is not due to any defect in the principle of combination but rather to the crudeness of the financial considerations involved in the Hooley scheme. The millionaire proposes to btiy up the companies, taking their last balance-sheet as the basis of the deal. It is obvious that a proposal of this kind cannot be made to suit all companies. There are many diverse interests that want special treatment. It is for thig reason that the Hooley proposal is not acceptable ; but this is a detail that cau be either modified or expanded, and it is believed that the millionaire will see the necessity of it and shape his proposals accordingly. For the Hooley scheme to be successful it will be absolutely necessary that the companies be dealt with separately and on their merits. On the question of combination Qf concentration there is no diversity of opinion, but opinions differ as to the means to be employed in arranging a combination. The most recent contributor on the subject of the frlozen meat trade is Mr W. A. Benn, manager of the Australian Chilling and Freezing Company, who, in an interview with the representative of a Sydney journal gives his views. Mr Benn, it may be explained, was in London when the Hooley scheme was first published, and had discussed the matter with experts at Home. His opinions are therefore valuable just now. He says that there is not a shadow of doubt that combination is absolutely necessary. The River Plate meat trade is practically in the hands of two organisations, while the whole of the chilled meat trade of the United States is controlled by one head. Combination of that kind is infinitely preferable to the internecine competition among consignors which has prevented the colonial trade from prospering, and combination there will have to be; and, adds Mr Benn, " at present we are simply cutting each other's throats with no "benefit to anybody except the middlemen in London." The main reason given by the New Zealand companies for rejecting the Hooley scheme was that the monopoly would be detrimental to the pastoralists. Mr Benn meets this by showing that in America, where combination has reached its highest state of perfection, there are never any complaints heard of injustice being done to cattle ranchers. He does not think pastoralists would receive lower prices because of the combination ; but supposing, he says, for the sake of argument, that this monopoly did give unfairly low prices to the pastoralists as compared with what they now get, it certainly would not be very long before other people not belonging to the combination would set to work freezing, and the refrigerating tonnage being largely in excess of present or future requirements the shipping companies would no doubt help those factories outside the combination. Mr Benn is enthusiastically in favor of combination, as are some of the more prominent men in New South "Wales interested in the industry, and it will indeed- be astonishing if some sort of combination does not shortly result from their joint efforts. One point of the interview is not without special interest to ourselves, as it bears on the River Plate competition. According to Mr. Benn the Plate people are going in more extensively for cross-bred sneop—half, threequarters, and seven-eighths bred—-

with a view of shipping them either alive or frozen. The result is th.it River Plate sheep are coining more into competition with New Zealand, and less and less with Australia. He very strongly recommends the breeding of early lamb-s, and states that the market for frozen lamb of good quality is practically inexhaustible and not easily glutted.