A WARNING.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLV, Issue 59, 10 March 1911, Page 2

A WARNING.

AMERICAN MEAT TRUST.

NEW KE^LAND:^HR^ATENED

I GOVERNMENf-^LIVE TO THE : rt POSITION.

Recent cablegrams from Australia hare indicated that the operations of the American Beef Trust; have assumed .definite proportions in that country, and it is interesting to note that more lhan a rumor of the affair has reached New Zealand. Recently Mr W- &• Foster, managing director of the Wellington Meat Export Company, received a letter from a wellinformed Australian correspondent, in which tho following passage occurs: — "I enclose you an article that appeared in the River Plate.Review of 4th November, which I think would bear reproduction in New Zealand. I have just returned from Queensland and New South Wales* .andl when in Sydney I learnt from undoubted authority that Mr Malkow, of Swift, and Co., is going to operate through various local concerns before very long in mutton and lamb of Australian and New Zealand origin. Swift and Co. are issuing new 7 per cent, stock ,to ; the extent of 15,000,000 dollars, and. Mr: Malkow has been instructed by cable to place as much of this as he possibly, can in Australasia —of course, amongst stock-owners as 'far as possible. In this way our producers are, or will be, providing means tc 'cut,their orn "throats,' and at the same.'time Su ift and oo.'^ are securing,, a; number of stockholders, whose interest it will be 'to barrack' for them in every possible way. This^ is exactly the process they adopted1 in Argentina, Great, Britain,, and the Continent, but in the latter twbeountries their stock was placed amongst the"people who bought^heir meat instead of the people who sold them tjieir stock. A 7 per cent, investment is a great, attraction, and no,doubt a good deal can be placed in Australasia, especially as Swift and Co. spare ji-either pains ijor money in their, methods of obtaining fresh capital. ■This new issue will increase their capital to 75,000,000 dollars, so we are up 'against which pnly our Governments can properly protect us."

' A NEW PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. .'.» The extract, from,,the Review, of the River Plate, mentioned by thel corres!pondent", is as under:—"'The Buenos Ayres, Herald, in its Sunday's issue, published a lengthy telegram from London hi connection with the manipulation of the American' Beef Trust. The ipessage commenced with the following sentence: ' According to V expert opinion, the English meat trade with j Argentina /'is doomed.' :The Trust>, having failed ta purchase the existing works owned by English capital, has. now entered upon a new plan of campaign, which has for its' "object, the swamping of. tho London market. By this means it is hoped to make the holders ov shares in these companies sell out, thereby enabling the Trust to obtain a controlling interest. The new contracts made with the Nelson Company and the Trust have enabled the latter to have two consignments arriving weekly. They are accused qf using. English capital in one direction to swamp English capital in another direction .. . The American is working for a great end. As soon as they j have,- by the conduct of this campaign of ruinous competition, forced the English traders in Argentine to sell their'works, the plan is, of,course, to sell at high prices in London and to buy cheaply in Argentine. Exjjert opinion is to the effect-that there is no chance in sighirbi the English;companies making a' successful fight against the Americans;; .the directors of the English companies will be obliged to consider the shareholders, and will be unable to throw away money in the same manner as the American firms, which are said to be spending hundreds of thousands of pounds in order tp gain their end. This end they hope to obtain within five years. . . . .The fact must not be overlooked that Australia has a strong hold upon the English market, and as yet that country is only commencing to send chilled beef to London. The experiments so far have not been a failure, but in course of time they may be considerably improved; then Canada, has to be taken into consideration. STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER. , The subject was brought under the notice of the Prime Minister by a Post reporter. "The subject," he said, "came up in the House last session— that in tho event of the American Meat Trust extending its operations to New Zealand, the Government would not hesitate to deal with the matter ; even if it meant the nationalisation of the whole of the refrigerating works in New Zealand."

"We don't intend," said Sir Joseph Ward, "to have the system of the American Trust created in New Zealand by any organisation, either irom outside or inside the Dominion. In the general interests of the people it would be not only a retrogressive step, but on-j that would be inimical to the immediate and future interests of both the sheep-grcgers and the meatbuyers of the Dominion. The frozen meat industry is srch an important branch of the life of the country that free and legitimate competition is a supremo necessity, and any monopoly, with a huge capital behind it, would of necessity in time squeeze out the existing freezing works; or compel their absorption, and the result would' inevitably be that the price of otock in the first instance would be controlled by them, and the monopoly of the sal.3 of meat to a consumer would follow. It is obvious that if a great trust were to get into this country, with a hugo capital behind it, it could, m combination with any similar trust already established in America, regulate the price of meat in London! and that, as far as New Zealand is concerned, would be distinctly detrimental to us. In other words, if they control the supplies at this end and also at tho other end they would be complete masters of the situation, and the matter is of such importance that 1 reel confident that upon being put to the people of the country, as it »voukl be, it would be agreed that the

combine should be faced' by the strongest power the Dominion could jbring against it—tho Government of fitthe country ]} "Tho Government of the country is I fully alive to the position, and has ibeen watching it carefully for some time past. At present the various freezing companies are in active competition against each other; that must be so for otherwise they could no£ get supplies. Lara not suggesting that tho Government is desirous of nationalising the refrigerating works of the Dominion; I would prefer to see them remain independent and privately controlled as at present, and any future action would, necessarily, only be taken after full conference between all thei interests concerned in the Dominion. It must be remembered that the various freezing works in the Dominion have been built up by tho enterprise of the people themselves, and in • spite of many difficulties, and it is not at all likely that, in view of the unsatisfactory position which a powerful monopoly would create in such a country, that we could stand idly by and allow such a condition of affairs to arise withoutusing every effort to combat it."