PRODUCE, WHEAT, AND MEAT POOLS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3556, 9 May 1922, Page 19

PRODUCE, WHEAT, AND MEAT POOLS.

COLD RECEPTION IN LONDON. LONDON, Mav 2. The newspaper Grocer says: The New Zealand suggestion of a compulsory dairy produce pool does- not commend itself to the trade in the United Kingdom. Its advantages will be much outweighed by its disadvantages, as all healthy rivalry and competition would he eliminated and p-ogress retarded. Any pool of this kind will be resented by the British distributing trade, and would result in a. sacrifice of good-will regarding New Zealand produce. The public would consider such a pool a replica of the American Beef Trust. It would be practically a second edition of Government control. The grocery trade has ha-d enough of this kind of thing. VOLUNTARY WHEAT POOL. SYDNEY, May 5. . The chairman of the Voluntary Wheat Pool gives a cheering review of its work. Of 23,000,000 bushels received by the pool 12,000.000 were sold locally anil overseas at an average price of 5s 61d, and 3,000,000 bushels were reserved for 1-ocal consumption. The bulk of the bagged wheat had already been handled, including that fro-m the districts where there was an immediate danger from the rat and mouse plagues. The administrative charges amounted to one farthing per bushel. When all charges had been met, it was anticipated that farmers would receive 4s 8d to 5s per bushel. Mr Ball, Minister of Agriculture, explained that as the result of the Labour Government’s guarantee to the farmers of 2s 6d a bushel over the Commonwealth’s 5s the State incurred a loss of between £BOO,OOO and £900,000. A similar amount would he also lost in connection with overpayments on other pools.

SUBSIDY FOR BEEF. BRISBANE, May 1. The Cattle Council has completed an arrangement in the terms of Mr Hughes’ offer to subsidise the beef all parties having agreed to specified proportionate reductions. The estimated dressed weight is 195,000,0001 b of exportable beef, and the exportable proportion is 81 per cent. The Federal Government’s concession of per lb will yield £165,221, and the freight concession the same amount. The meat works’ reduction of gd per lb will yield half that sum. The labour reduction of l-16d will yield a quarter of the above total of £453,677, equal to Is lOd per head or 4s 7d per 1001 b. SYDNEY, May 3. Mr Hughes says that the beef subsidy offered by the Commonwealth would operate immediately. The chief stumblingblock was the reduction in wages. This had been overcome, and an agreement reached by which wages would be reduced by 12s per week. May 5. Repfesentatives of the producers’ associations pressed upon Sir George Fuller the desperate condition of the cattle industry, which they declared was faced with ruin. They asked for a reduction in the railway freights by 50 per cent., the abolition of price-fixing in regard to meat, improvements in the present wasteful loading methods, and standardised official grading to prevent the shipment of inferior quality. Sir George Fuller promised the earliest consideration of the matter, stating that he realised that the present position meant ruin. The Government was determined to do all that it possibly could to keep the producers on the land, and it was also determined to reduce taxation.