A GENTLE HINT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7505, 12 September 1902, Page 2

A GENTLE HINT.

The first annual report of the Depart- j ment of Industries, which was presented to 1 Parliament yesterday, is on the whole an exceedingly interesting document. It covers a great' deal of ground, and covers it, in a style which, besides being interesting, cannot fail to be instructive to all who care to study it carefully. Perhaps the most important feature of the report is the reference to the frozen meat trade. The trade has -been brought prominently before the 1 public during the past few months at meetings of the Farmers' Union I and also at the Conference oL Frozen Meat Exporters, and the impression left on the public is that th© methods, i employed at the other end are not as satisfactory as they might be. The report of the Department confirms this theory. It says that, both as regards discharging and disposing of meat, the system at present in force is in need of radical reform. It advocates an .increase in the number of ports of discharge and a decrease in the number of consignees. Steps should be taken,; it contends, to secure the discharge of frozen meat at Liverpool, Bristol, Manchester and Glasgow. This, it^ points ©vt z would relieve the pressure in^ London, and, we presume, would also % facilitate the process of distribution. , It might also, the Department thinks, have the effect of, to a, certain extent, abolishing the enormous number of London middlemen who, by, competition with one another, help to keep down price*. Instead of competition of this kind, there ought, in the opinion of tlid Department, to be a system of combination among the traders; indeed, the Secretary to the (Department goes so far as to declare that, unless the traders take some action to bring about combination and to put an end to the 'present conditions under which meat is sold, the Government will be justified in interfering. This statement sounds sweeping, but we are not sure that it is unreasonably so. The frozen meat industry, as perhaps the leading one of the staple industries of the colony, must be preserved at all costs. At the present time it is threatened by more serious competition than has ever threatened it since its birth, and it is a matter of urgent necessity that the colony should' rise to the occasion. If the State can be of any assistance in fostei-ing and encouraging the industry, it ought not to hesitate to offer its aid.