Frozen Meat Companies and the Producers.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 3083, 25 March 1892, Page 3

Frozen Meat Companies and the Producers.

•dot.'.* I *'. (Manawata Times.) i ' i* JRie enormous » dividends paid by come of the companies concerned in the frozen „ meat trade should cause our producer* to *Weavonr' to prevent this seizure ofrants, wbiob Bhoald 1 belong to them. ErofeßSor Wallace, who recently visited Abe .colonies to make a epeoial Btudy of this trade, points out that in 1890 one of ihe oompaniestbat handle the meat paid a dividend of 20 per cent! The following remarks from the Pabiatna Star on this subject are appropriate, and the remedy inffseßted is one we have frequently advocated;—" Thia alone shows where a larse nftffim 'df tbb money tbat oagbfe to find lie wkyjJnto the-pookets of the producer aMß> ' bni this 1 will never be altered onfcil Ss«iaaU«rftwers and shippers combine to ££*&* enormous. profits filched JromXm by the London middlemen for This difference 0f ,20 per xent means a difference of more than 2s a fcel(T6n < 'evefy carcaae of mutton shipped, Andes' per bead would make a welcome uddition to the incomes of our sheep farmers, Nowhere in the world do the V* farmers allow themselves to " worked by the middlemen to such, an extent as in New Zealand Until they take steps to iounteraofc'the evil by. marketing their own produce^ wfi' may expect to hear of the London' brokers enjoying their' snug litwe annual dividends of 20 per cent." Professor Wallace, in bis work on the Bural Economy and Agrioolture of Australia « iiift New Zealand, points out that the * f° a fl noy of this trade will be in the direo^ "ffn O f a steady and regular increase; v fzT&« 1Bi '' D ' He argnes tbat ; thil e tl?&^'^o^t b^ nitea King. a£« i too?ea?in*. tbe^ntimber of cheep in jTSSyWto^ diminishing, and : - fit the prevalent idea" that our mutton is interior to English is --dm, to want of 'W&ge of'the true facts of tbo cane. ! - He saS'the process ot freezing doeß not '^Sfara the meat to. any extent, nor deTC%9&2£Hfo^lOTfei if the owe* B9 "" l^SSSßMwpt.wkb bave w*tcbej eaa®sWJ!? f *sßKSiL.titi* ~xr m» trade will not

which should be retained in the country to furnish the means of keeping op tbe supply of frozen mutton. New Zealand will want all ita productive ewe flocks for many years to come, as every year a large area of new country ia converted into pasture land and requires stocking. To make the industry profitable there must be a supply of breeding stock nvailabie at prioes whioh will leave a margin between cost price here and market price in London. It is the London market which praotioally rules prices at onr stock sales, though we may renxark, in passing, that this solid faot and its significance have not yet been comprehended by our legislators. _^_______