SUSPICIOUS MEAT BUYING.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 272, 2 November 1916, Page 2

SUSPICIOUS MEAT BUYING.

IS A TRUST OPERATING? Dunedin, Oct. 31. It has long been believed locally that the American meat trust has , been operating somewhat extensively in New Zealand for several years, with considerable success. There are agents In the markets, for example, who operate freely without a limit to their purchasing power. Their instructions are merely to secure a share of meat- for their companies, and they are not tied down to standardised limit. it has been notified that these agents are usually very much in evidence when big lots of meat are offered for sale, and tnat they invariably outbid the keenest and most, tenacious competitors, owing to the significant fact that they are backed by principa.s who apparently can afford not to worry about “limits,’’ and they are not afraid to force up prices—a result that, of course, affects consumers ill New Zealand. Hie principals of these unlimited cash buyers send meat and have no brokers or handlers in New Zealand. The source of profit is London. They appear to have no difficulty in getting their purchases frozen m New Zealand, but one shrewd representative of the meatbuy ing trade gives as his opinion that to tackle the trust in New Zealand is to begin at the wrong end, and to court failure. There is need of investigation in London, to obtain information as to principals and their methods at Home. A remedy could be effected if freezing companies were to refuse to accept purchases of foreign agents but, lack of information as to principals renders such action very delicate, and even dangerous. It is admitted, indeed, that it is possible that even German firms to-day are buying New Zealand wool and produce. There is no way of proving it without knowledge of the principals in London and America, hence the need of closer investigation in London rather than a mere recital periodically of prices in Hifaie markets.