HOW TO RELIEVE IT.

Northern Advocate, 3 June 1920, Page 1

HOW TO RELIEVE IT.

(By Walter E, Elliot M.P., in

"R&ynold's

Control, it will be universally admitted, is an evil, although at times a necessary one. ■ That a skeleton organisation of the Food Ministry should be continued, even for five years, in order to come down drastically on the profiteers where those arise, is probably right. But control is necessary by a shortage and by a shortage alone; and whatever its other merits it always fails to give the consumer the Ibenefit of a glut.

In spite of the prophecies of the Food Controller, such a glut nas arisen in the world market of meat, and the results are reflected in the idle ships and choked storage sheds from end to end of the United King■dfom.

PDBSMAINBNT OR TEMPORARY?

Is the glut permanent or temporary? Let us look at the facts. Tha mobilisation of great armies all over the world accentuated the rising demand for meat, led to a rise in price, and this in turn to an increase of stocks. Th latest figures show that the horned cattle of the world (excluding enemy countries) have actually increased by 24,000,000 since 1914. What is more, concurrently with this increase has gone the means of handling it; so that the exportable surplus of meat has risen from 700,----000 tons pre-war to 1,100,000 tons to-day. It was thought that this would be competed for and (bought over our heads by starving Europe. This has not happened, for two reasons: First, the terribly bad state of European transport; secondly, an;l more important, the fall in the enemy exchanges— the mark is worth less than Id to-day, so that meat costing here Is per lb would cost the German housewife over 30s per lb. At this price she is naturally unable to look at it; so the meat comes to the only country which has at once the demand, the facilities for handling the stuff, and the money to pay If or it, VAST CONTRACTS.

THE ONLY WAY. What is the remedy? What is the remedy of any tradesman who finds himself with a surplus of penishaibie goods? For, make no mistake about it, even in cold storage meat is perishable. Mr Bridgman, speaking for the Board of Trade last Tuesday, •said: "Any loss arising from the deterioration of this meat is negligible," Loss of money, perhaps; for the Government has a monopoly; but loss in the quality of the meat there certainly is. The situation used to arise before the war on a small scale in many butchers' shops on a Saturday night in warm weather. Did the tradesman hesitate? No; he cut the price, cut it again, cut it remorselessly until he clearedHhe goods at what they would fetch. Surely the Government can have as much courage! They are reducing the price of mutton to 9d per lb. Mr. Lloyd George said last Thursday that the meat was being placed on the market as rapidly as it could be albsorbed. The r*ate at which it is being albsorbed is entirely conditioned by the price charged for it. The housewife knows instinctively that this two-year-stored mutton swept up from .all the markets of the woi'ld, is not worth even the 9d to which the Board of Trade intends to lower it; and that is why we say that it would need to be broken further yet, even to 6d if necessary. SELL IT ALL OFF.

The essential thing is to sell off thfc accumulation, clear the warehouses, and turn the steamers round to bring us the great fresh crops of meat that now are being , secured all over the world. The Board of Tr&de say that they bought this meat at 4Jd to 5Jd per Üb., with another 2d per lb. for freight. The sting of the story comes at . the end—"and heavy charges for storage in New Zealand of meat awaiting shipment." We shall never get cheap meat while to the on-cost is added two years' rent of a freezing house here and months in a steamer at anchor at .£SOO per day.

But here the Food Control steps in. During the war the Government, very rightly, took on vast meat contracts. Stocks were .'bought in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, even in Patagonia >and Manchuria. (The responsibility is shared between the Board of Trade and the Food Minister, so when I say "Food Control" I mean the Government agencies controlling meat as a-whole.) Also, at Home, iprices were fixed at certain flat rates. Now, even for home produce control is no longer necessary—it adds £5 a head to the price of bullocks, £2 a head to the price of sheep, and almost as much to pigs. It is superfluous for Home meat; if it were removed the price might fluctuate, prime cuts might rise, others would 'fall, but there is not the slightest fear of the profiteering rise of which ithe consumer is so apprehensive.

Why? Because of the vast Gov-ernment-owned stocks, which can be thrown on the markets at a moment's notice. Look at the figures. On February 21 there were 142,000 tons of meat in cold storage; on February 24 there were 18<3,726 tons, in store, ashore or afloat; by the 29th the figure had gone up to 202,226 tons, at which date some nine vessels were unloading and twenty-one were waiting for a berth, with 47,000 tons of meat aboard. On an average the country is eating some 12,000 tons a week of frozen meat; but 15,000 tons a week are being , imported, with more to follow. It is no wonder that, as in the case of the Euripides, a ship lies in the dock from January 17 to till February 29 ; at which date 60,000 carcaess were still to unload.