The Frozen Meat Trade. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2116, 13 September 1894, Page 23

The Frozen Meat Trade. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— The utterances of Mr Arthur M'Donald, of your city, with regard to the frozen meat trade in London and the eyatem of sale which obtains there, calls for rome reply. Mr M'Donald is particular to point out that his remarks refer to "some of -the salesmen in Suiithfield market, and not to London merchants," and I would like to coirect the impression which Mr M'Donald's erroneous and mischievous statements must have had upon your readers. He says, " Of course there are a few exceptions amongst the salesmen, but I found in many instances, in fact the majority, that salesmen in. the London meat market have two books, one in which is entered up the price to be returned to the producer, and the other in which the correct price charged to the buyer is entered." I would simply ask any reasonable person, if this is the case, how came it that the*e salesmen so freely showed their hand to Mr M'Donald, a perfect stranger, and an inhabitant of the country that they were hoodwinking? Mr M'Donald states that he found that the wiaiority of salesmen in the London meat market kept two books. There are about 40U firms in that market. Did he gain access to the books of over 200 of these ? Such extravagant statements go down very well when folks don't know anything about the subject that is being talked about, but they won t stand analysing and are foolish and absurd. He then goes on to say, "At the end of each day each salesman is approached and asked what price he intends to return for the meat sold by him that day " Who approaches him ? And if this is so, how is it that on one day different prices are made for a parcel of sheep or lambs, as the case miy be? Mr M'Donald does Dot enlighten us as to who the mysterious person, or persons are who do these things. The old theory ef a ring of three powerful salesmen fixing; the price each morning has been exploded long »ro, and we know now that our meat is known throughout the breadth and length of England, and that the prices are published daily in all the London papers. In L n,don we receive from New Zealand wool, sheepskins, tallow, rabbitskins, pelts, butter, cheese, grain, and meat, and only the first four of these are sold at auction, the -otheis being sold in open markets, whilst in wool alone is a printed catalogue of prices realised issued. Does Mr M'Donald mean to any that the salesmen in all these other markets keep two books also, and that the whole trade in London of colonial imports is dishonest? .

We know that there are black sheep in every flock. We have seen wool falsely packed and rabbitskins falsely packed, but we don't say that the colonies are all dishonest because we have had a few instances of it here and there. Let me assure your readers that the Loudon meat market is" run on honest linea— that the majority of salesmen dou't^ keep two books for the purpose of hoodwinking the owners, and that prices are entirely regulated by the inevitable law of supply and demand, — and I speak from a much wider, longer, and more intimate exrerience of the frozen meat trade than Mr M'Donald. It is impossible for a visitor from these colonies, who only makes a flying trip Home, to get at the multitudinous ramifications of an industry. Years are required, and years of cloea study and attention to the question in hand, before anyone can grasp the situation and be itfa position to aay how things should be done; and even then there are diversities or opinion as to methods and systems for aiTiving at a certain end. The best thing that shippers here ran do is to disabuse their minds of ttia idea that they are the victims of a swindle, organised or otherwise, and devote their energies to sending Home to the market which absorbs their produce an article which will sell. We are all in a greatly agitated state of mind here as to th« low price our mutton is fetching, and we waste time in arguing that such in not fair and right ; but if it is not Fair and right how is it that other countries are striving bo hard to get into the trade that we have created, and are willing to put their mutton on the market at a lower figure than ours? Surely, if we are being swindled, these countries would try and profit by our experience, and see that they were not taken advantage of. In conclusion, I can only say that the information which we receive from time to time by casual visitors to the old country tends only to unsettle the minds of our industrious inhabitants without doing them one particle of good, leads them to believe that they are victims where they are really honoured friends, makes them suspicious of their business connections without cause, and will end by deluding them into a dream that they will only be awakened out of to find their trade diminished and their position as' leaders wrested from them —I am, Ac , R. B. Bennett, Representative of Messrs Henry S. Fitter and Sobb. Christchurch, September 11.