CRITICAL TIMES FOR AUSTRALIAN MEAT INDUSTRY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18187, 21 June 1927, Page 9

CRITICAL TIMES FOR AUSTRALIAN MEAT INDUSTRY.

ONLY ORGANISED ACTION CAN SAVE IT FROM DISASTER.

By Telegraph.—Press A ssn.—Copyright. Aus. and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received June 21, 11.5 am.) SYDNEY, June 21.

Mr J. B. Craxnsie, chairman of the Metropolitan Meat Industry Board says that the position of the meat industry throughout the Commonwealth at present is critical.

Exporters have been carrying on at a loss for some time and the immediate future gives no indication that the situation will improve. If anything the heavy yardings of sheep that will result from the unusually severe winter would tend to aggravate the depression, which was not confined to any one State or portion of the Commonwealth, but applied to the industry as a whole. The small volume of business that had come within the reach of Queensland meat works for some time had resulted in a large increase in the operating costs. The effects of the recent drought in that State would make the position worse as the export trade would be light. A similar position existed in West Australia, while in Victoria and New South Wales difficulty was experienced in securing sufficient business to enable the works to be operated profitably. “Only an organised attempt to handle the trade scientifically and thereby to stabilise it will save the industry from disaster,” he said.