“EVERYTHING NOW SETTLED”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 23

“EVERYTHING NOW SETTLED”

END OF “MEAT WAR” WHAT OF THE PRICES? “Everything is now settled,” Lord Vestey told a London interviewer on November 28, in referring to the fact that the long drawn-out dispute among the Argentine meat importing companies was settled. “I have heard some sort of suggestion,” Lord Vestey said, “that the settlement will result in increase in price, but there is no truth in that at all. At present there is rro sign of an increase, and if it comes I am sure it will be very slight—at any rate, not more than id a pound. “The big firms will now work together in perfect harmony, and the result of this co-operation must mean a continuation of low prices. Because* of the great volume of our trade, we can put meat on the market at very little profit. That is the only reason that we can sell so cheaply. Smaller firms could not possibly do it.” A representative of another of the negotiating firms said that an equitable arrangement had now been come to between the shippers with regard to space on ships for chilled beef. Regular weekly services would be initiated, and by this means there would be neither a glut nor a famine of chilled beef in the markets. Recouping Losses English papers immediately began to discuss the probable results of the settlement. For months the papers have been guessing at the losses suffered by the meat companies. The London “Daily Mail” now tells us that the losses total £30,000,000. Other estimates vary from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000. We can assume that ,tlie meat companies will endeavour to get back their losses states “Country Life.” Argentine cattle producers have been stating that prices paid by the meat works for fat cattle have been unprofitable for the producers. Evidently the cattle producers will now expect a better price. It seems a fair thing now to assume—Lord Vestey notwithstanding —that the British beef market will rise, and that higher prices will rule during the next year or two than ruled during the last twelve or eighteen months. If this happens, then Australian cattle producers will benefit—if we have any considerable surplus of beef for •export. If the British beef market improves materially, the rise should indirectly help the mutton market. An overloaded or oppressed beef market is bad for the mutton market, and vice versa.

“What do you want for your birthday?” “A piece of string.” “A piece of string ?” “Yes, with a clockwork horse at the end of it.” —Pages Gaies , Yverdon, Switzerland.

Beauty at Any Cost.—He: “Where’d you get those sweet little dimples?” She: “By sleeping on collar buttons all night.” Hardly Ever.—Smith—“My wife never gossips.” Smart—“ Neither does mine. By the way, what does your wife call it?” * * * Model for Husbands.—The harassedlooking man was being shown over some works. “That machine,” said his guide, “does the work of thirty men.” The man smiled glumly. “At last,” he said, “I have seen what my wife should have married.” Transposition.—The proprietor of a variety theatre was complaining to the manager about the poor returns he was getting. “The people to-day,” he said, “take a lost of pleasing, and I am sure in my efforts to make this place a success I have left no stone unturned; but the only result so far, I am sorry to say, is that no turn has been left unstoned.” Settling.—“ Tommy,” ordered father, “come into the woodshed with me.” “You ain’t going to spank me, are you, dad?” asked Tommy, tearfully. “Didn’t I tell you this morning, I’d settle with you if you went swimming again?” “But, dad, I thought you were only joking, like when you told the butcher you’d settle with him.” Moving the Man.—John was certainly a steady man, but he was a bit too steady for Clara. They had been engaged to be married for some years, and still he had never asked her lo name the happy day.

One evening John culled in a romantic frame of mind, and asked Clara to sing something tender and touching—something that would move him. So clara promptly sat down at the piano, and sang: “Darling, I am growing Old,”