POSITION OF DOMINION

North Otago Times, Volume C, Issue 13223, 19 February 1915, Page 8

POSITION OF DOMINION

,■". Scvorh] b\iSin" Jnejij. ijn'4 fijmidrsjiri CKrlßtcnurch! f intcrvi(Jwfe(l^ , fo-tlny 'new Control of-Australian IniQflt '.sjippliejs, ; niif]j;{lip -question arose ,18 to. ivbothpt.-U ,\vns -1 ikply;kt)int._ t-ho Imperial,. &qypr.nmpnt would ■ cbriimnndeer;/ cxpo'rtnblo moat; -i'lio fl'onsonsiis of opinion seemed to be-thnt, for thoprcsont.it was rather Unlikely,,; /Up,;tp:jfatp,tlio .only clos'sos. of moat .that jiavo ]iceri taken by the War Departments of' tho Allies' have been beef and "largo" mutton. ' This is ; the most vcpbnpmie'nl class of incnt, ami naturally '.enough It'hns, been in demand,..-!■:, . •'. , -,; /A. large, proportion of the meat exported from Now Zealand,' howoVciy is lamb, and "curiously enough lamb has ten .Bc,nrcely,..,affoc,tcd at all .by tho wrir, .It is, not-a class of. nieat that, is .wanted for the' soldiers, and so far all thp lamb that' has been disposed of has gono through tho same clinnnols as It'.dops in normal times,, New Zealand certainly, exports n-. fair quantity of beef'and n great deal of mutton to the' United Kingdom, and no doubt, if the ImporinL Government find that'it wants this meat,'it will take steps to scenrp.it in the samo way as it has dono in Australia. , ',,'Thqro does not seem to be any reason, to doubt that, if a request should come'for 1 tho co-oporntinn of tho Dominion in - this way, the■ producers will loyally' support any good scheme that may beiproposed. A well known Canterbury: 9h'eep,-fnrmor who has spoken to/ was. emphatic on the point. "Mind?" he'said," of 'course we should not itilnd. ■ If;the British. Government eommamlpered pur nicat,.l have not the slightest dbubt.thnt we..should bo.pnid a fair and'• reasonable' prico for it, and it would bo our. plain, duty to cheerfully ngreo'.to take jL. We cannot do too much for tho boys at the front, They and our allies, must be fed, and woil fed, too, and if New Zealand.can help ht such an. important direction then it would be au everlasting disgrnco if '.we haggled or grumbled at what,might seem to be nrather.dr'astio proceeding. I,- for one, am absolutely prepared, to trust, the men in-charge. Why, so far, wein New Zealand have scarcely known that war is going on. We have suffered no hardships, we : all can get as much to eat now as before the war, we can, apparently, And money to run our motor cars and buy clothes and' go to the pictures. This threatened trouble about the shortage of freight for our meat is actually tho first unpleasant thing we have had to bear because of the war. J,t is not. certain yet that oven that is going to be very bad."