MEAT AND PRICES

Otago Witness, Issue 3325, 5 December 1917, Page 5

MEAT AND PRICES

AMERICAN BUYING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Tho report of the Moat Export Trade Committee, which wis presented to Parliament, has now been printed. The committee recommends, inter aha,, that " special care" shall be taken "to see that foreign firms and their agents, and also companies registered in Now Zealand, with small capital, which carry on large businesses by moans of outside financial support, shall not escape taxation on tho grounds that small, if any, profits are made on their trading in the dominion." The Government is also urged "to consider a scheme for controlling: —(a) The export of frozen meat after the war and fb) in conjunction with the Imperial Government, the distribution of meat in Britain. (Note. —Th : s is necessary to prevent the exploitation of the producer or consumer by meat trusts'." PRIME MINISTER .*FPATn The Prime Minister (Mr W. F ivlaseey), in commenting on mea* *•• «t in the course of his evidence: —Moat which is released [by • the imperial Government;, and goes into the hands of the Meat Trust is only about 1 per cent, of that released, and would probably not be more than nrr cent, of that sent from New Zealand. Wo cannot, however, shut our eyes to the influence Personally. I am rather afraid of it. They must possess an enormous amount of influence with an enormous capital behind them. . . . Tho Government, must see that there will be no such thing as preferential [shipping] rates with the American Meat Trust. Dr Reakee (Director of Live Stock Division); "The incoming of American meat companies into New Zealand constitutes one of the most serious matters that has ever confronted the New Zealand producers. "We know their history in the United States." JOINT IMPERIAL SCHEME. Mr W. H. Milward (managing director Gear Company) outlined a scheme for joint control* 1 of the New Zealand meat output by the Dominion Government in this country and the Imperial Government in the Old Country. • The Chairman: Your contention is that this combine has squeezed down the producer to a lower price than his stock is worth? . , Mr Milward: Yes. The freights were lower from Argentine; and, further, than that what the companies were selling on their own account, in England was far considerably more than the meat released by the Government. Mr W. H. Field: Yon are satisfied that the trusts are operating here? Mr Mill ward: Yes: I do not think there is any doubt about that. Mr W. G. Foster (managing director Wellington Meat Export Company): The troubla is the Trust Companies do not contribute to the New Zealand revenue at all as compared with those companies wh ; ch are registered here and are New Zealand companies. This pives them an enormous advantage over ether New Zealand companies which are trading here.