THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 4

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

The letter from Mr Thomas Mackenzie which we publish in another column throws additional light upon the subject of the burdensome charges that have lo ba borne by our frozen meat shipments to the United Kingdom. That excessive claims for damage on meat cargoes should be made has almost come to be regarded by producers as a matter of course, and it is in consequence of this, we assume, that the insurance rates are, as Mr Mackenzie complains, " abnormal/ for the insurance companies will have in the first place to meet these claims. Mr Mackenzie himself, it may be remembered, had the courage on one occasion to tell the Smithfield dealers to their faces that, while it was perfectly true that carcases were landed in a damaged condition, yet for every damaged sheep that came into the market a claim was made and payment received for three. Excessive claims of this kind are an incident of the trade which apparently has to be submitted to so long as the control in London remains as it is. To these charges have, however, to be added "several sellers' commissions, loss through cost affd results of assessments other than for damage claims, and sometimes loss on weights." So far as the selling commissions are concerned it would appear that the interests of the grower in the colony are not infrequently a matter of the last concern. Thestf repeated selling commissions may not be fraudulent in the same sense as the corrupt secx*et commissions which have been the subject of investigation by the London Chamber of Commerce, but it is certainly unreasonable that the •colonial producer should have to submit to them, and when the selling agent has " a much keener eye on the commission he is going to secure than on the price ho is likely to obtain" he comes perifously close to being dishonest. The question of the loss which the shippers suffer through the cost and results of assessments other than for damage claims is one into which Mr Mackenzie has made exhaustive inquiry, and the outcome is that he has been forced to the conclusion mentioned in his circular report last November to the companies represented by him that "the c.i.f. sellers are practically limited to market salesmen for the choice of assessors and arbitrators to protect their interests." The protection which sellers receive under, a system that compels them, -to.

accept as assessors persons who are contantly employed in assessing against each other may not unfittingly be put down as quite a negligible quantity. The system is one that offers a premium upon 'dishonesty and fraud' of which the sellers 12,000 miles away are the victims. As Mr Mackenzie pointed out several months ago, the honest assessor is a drug in the labour market, and the honest purchaser is unable to make a living in the competition with his unscrupulous rivals. Mr Mackenzie has already suggested certain remedies to overcome the evils which his experience has shown to exist in London, and he now hints that he has other plans to

submit to the New Zealand producers to secure for their shipments freedom from some of the illegitimate charges that are now imposed upon them. If Mr Mackenzie can devise some means by which fchat much-to-be-desired consummation may be effected he will earn the warmest thanks of the colony. He has already done excellent service in England, and the insight*, which he has gained into the methods that are practised in the handling of frozen meat shipments may -not improbably be turned by him to the advantage of the producers by recovei'ing for them some of the concessions which have been wrung out of them by speculators in London. Of the full extent and depth of the practices to which these speculators resort Mr Mackenzie promises a full revelation in the colony, for, as large numbers of our readers will mote with pleasure, he explicitly states, in solution of doubts that have been expressed on the subject, his intention of seeking to- re.-enter our Parliament on his return to New Zealand, and then he proposes to go thoroughly into the whole question.