TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 19821, 18 March 1926, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Fresh Argentine beef on the London market is going to deliver a serious attack on the Australian beef trade and it is difficult to see how the Commonwealth can deal with this form of competition, although it has to be remembered that the cost of shipping live cattle from Argentina to London by way of Belgium must be a heavy item, a charge so heavy that it may restrict the use the South American trade makes of this method. New Zealand’s beef trade has dwindled to such low proportions that this development does not affect the Dominion directly, but developments will be watched with grave interest, because the influence on the consumption of mutton and lamb will be of vital importance to this country. In the Old Country beef holds pride of place in the meat diet and while the price to the consumer is low the seller of mutton and lamb has to fight a keen battle. Tlie meat sent from this country is winning steadily, however, and with a continuance of the campaign, particularly in the form of gifts to people at Home of New Zealand lamb, the qualities of the Dominion’s product will open up new demands where at the present moment beef alone is considered as the steady meat ration.

Councillor Miller seemed anxious to make it clear that the Town Council did not invite Colonel Symonds, of the company which has been trading with the Corporation, to inspect the North road, but actually this caution was unnecessary. If the Council had invited him to examine the road it wouid have taken steps to ensure that he would meet the committee charged with the responsibility of investigating the subject. To accept the views of any engineer secondhand on this subject would be a ludicrous procedure and a plain confession that the committee set up by the Council was a dummy utterly incapable of carrying out the task entrusted to it. Colonel Symonds, who is a military man, and an officer of his company clothed with the reputation of an expert, would be the first to agree that his opinions, sound or otherwise, cannot be accepted as weighty on a specific work of this kind unless they are communicated first-hand to the proper tribunal.