MEAT TRUST.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16821, 28 May 1919, Page 11

MEAT TRUST.

DISCUSSED BY FARMERS' UNION. GOVERNMENT"ACTION ADVOCATED. (Per Press Association), i ■ ■ WELLINGTON, May 27. The operations of the Meat Trust were discussed at the Wellington Farmers' Union Conference to-day. Mr- 1-. Benton (Featherston) moved that the Government be requested to take further steps to prevent the Meat Trust operating in this Dominion. He stressed the danger of allowing the Trust to secure a firm footing in New Zealand. Mr Hugh Morrison, in seconding the motion, said .they were now called upon to fight an autocratic commercial combine. If the Trust _ were giving high prices for stock nowit was only a move to secure control, and later it would pay what it liked, and not what the farmers wanted. Mr C. C. Jackson said that the Trust was already operating in New Zealand. Other speakers agreed that the only remedy was co-operation. The president (Mr G. L. Marshall) outlined recent legislation placed on the Statute Book, with the object of controlling the Trust, by giving the Minister discretion in granting of export licenses to freezing companies. Were those means sufficient? He thought it was satisfactory that full and absolute power was given to one Minister, but control at the other end was essential. At Mr W. M. Birch's suggestion the motion was amended to read "That the Government be requested to take all possible steps to • prevent the Meat Trust operating in this Dominion, and in the distribution of- the Dominion's produce in Great Britain." The motion, as amended, was agreed to. The Conference also adopted the following motion tabled by Mr C. C. Read (Carterton): —"That the Government be requested to publish the names of representatives of the Meat Trust and also the names-under which the Meat Trust is operating in New Zealand." The following motion from F«atherston was also agreed to: —"That, with a view to preventing agents of the Meat Trust operating in dairy produce in this Dominion, the Conference urges the National Dairy Association to advise all dairy companies to consign their produce to the Home markets and arrange for their cwn means of distribution there." It was stated that the National Dairy Association had already taken up this matter. LAST SESSION'S LEGISLATION.- : Last session Parliament pMMd legislation with the intention of oontrolling the operations of the Meat Trust in New Zealand. The Minister of Agriculture stated to-day that rery careful enquiries hud been mad®, Bad he would shortly be able tn ra6B3 a general statement on the whol® position. Only one application for a snsße had been refused.