TEN MILLIONS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7720, 16 May 1916, Page 4

TEN MILLIONS.

ON IMPERIAL ACCOUNT. WORKING OF THE SUPPLIES SCHEME. BUSINESS ON MODERN LINES. The Imperial Government Supplies Branch began its operations in March, 1914. To-day. it has paid out on Imperial account over ten millions sterling, as follows: £ ' Meat .. .. 9,143,794 Cheese .. .. 845,474 Schcelite .. 28,fi83 Total .. .. 10,017,951 It began with the shipment of New Zealand frozen meat to the Imperial Government. The branch now not only handles the meat, but also cheese purchased on Imperial Government account, distributes the butter purchased by the Dominion Government, and controls the kauri gum export. The paying out of ten millions sterling almost entirely for food supplies for the Imperial Government makes a suitable point from which to review the work done and the methods of doing it. Through the courtesy of the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey) the “Evening Post” was afforded every facility in obtaining material for this purpose, and an insight into the operation of the Imperial supplies scheme generally. The scheme is the working out of a plan laid down and accepted by the conferences convened by the Prime Minister with freezing companies and others concerned. It has been adhered to from the (irst, and has demonstrated the fact that a Government department can be run upon strictly modern business lines. The scheme began with t lie handling of the frozen meat requisitioned by the Dominion Government on behalf of the Imperial Government, but it was at the outset made so elastic that it now includes in its activities cheese and schcelite for the Imperial Government, distribution of butter to the camps and transport, and affairs connected with the kauri gum export. The Supplies Branch began its work first with the meat export as from 3rd March, 1914, since when it has disposed of— Beef, quarters .. 719,089 Mutton, carcases 3,045,732 Lamb, carcases .. 4,370,420 The total payments for the meat alone to date (9th May) amount to £11,143,794. Steamers loaded with meat which have arrived at their destination, are en route to Great Britain, and are loading in the Dominion, number 95, and the Clan McTavish, which put up such a grand fight against a German submarine before she was sunk, has so far been the only vessel lost. On hoard her were 8883 quarters of beef, 20,718 carcases of mul l on and lamb, included in the above totals. There is this to be remembered in conection with any consideration of the Imperial Supplies Branch system: It. probably could not have been brought into existence except by a Government. Its turnover is stupendous, but the Government is the only buyer, using what it requires itself and distributing the remainder—in the case of meat—through the wholesale firms which handled it before the war. , DISTRIBUTING COSTS SAVED. Before the meat was requisitioned it was disposed of by the producer to the freezing companies by sale, or frozen and shipped on his account either on consignment or by sale on a c.i.f. basis, that is, a landed price in the United Kingdom, including the cost of freight, insurance, exchange, and other charges. That necessitated many buyers, many hands for the meat to pass through themselves. The disposal of the great output of New Zealand meat wjis carried out by a number of different firms, all highly specialised in the business, and handling the frozen and chilled meat of other countries. There was naturally competition for the trade. The same system holds good with regard to the butter and cheese outputs of this country. Firms buy these goods outright, that is, all the butter or cheese made during the season, or they make arrangements to receive and sell the produce on commission on account of those concerned; or factories may consign part and sell part of their outputs. But, in any case, under pre-war cond'tions, tlu»sg methods of disposal necessitated the employment of much highly expert and indispensable labor, all of which so far, at any rate, as the beef, mutton, and lamb, and cheese (as to one-third of the output) are concerned, is now done by a staff of the slenderest proportions. Before the war officers of the Agricultural Department carefully watched and inspected and graded all meat and cheese respectively intended for export, and they continue to do so. By systematisation, and the bringing of tlie distribution under one department, an immense saving in the cost of private individual effort has been effected. To-day, not only meat and cheese, but schcelite and kauri gum and butter, come under the attention of the Imperial Supplies Branch, which is under the direction of Mr Robert Triggs, Public Service Commissioner, and is staffed by the officer-in-charge (Mr F. 11. Taylor), the accountant (Mr D. Rutherford), two clerks, a typiste, and a messenger, and in one room in the G.P.O. There is a lot of work associated with the branch, as may be surmised from the immense turnover and the development of the business from being the medium through which the meat requisitioned has to pass to include cheese and other exports. Time and labor, however, are saved by the utilisation of every modern means in conducting big business. System has been the means of effecting a great economy of labor. For instance, Burroughs adding machines and “Millionaire” machines have been installed, saving an immense amount of calculation and arithmetical “deadwork,” besides ensuring accuracy. The cost so far to the turnover has boon .0025 per cent, to bo precise. System, too, lias effected a great saving ip the forms that at first had to be filled in in connection with meat exports. In one instance, that in the ease of companies freezing on aecount, of clients, the adoption of a-uniform set of documents covering each complete shipment reduced a multiplicity

of documents, telieved the companies of much work, and assured celerity in the distribution of proceeds of shipments' to clients. In fine, red tape is wholly dispensed with. The result is that a standard of efficiency and economy is set up which is not popularly associated with a Government Department.