DO WE DEMAND TOO MUCH.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 190, 21 February 1913, Page 4

DO WE DEMAND TOO MUCH.

UNPLEASANT LETTER FROM

HOME. * Mr A. Kaye, of Chris'tchurch, has just received a letter dated January 3 from Messrs Gilbert Anderson and Co., of London, dealing with the frozen meat trade. The letter states : "We regret that the prices asked are checking business, and this, to our mind, is a very serious matter. We therefore hope that the season will turn more favourable, so that we can place large quantities while the market remains at the present high level. We regret to inform you that a large portion of the trade is going to the River Plate, and we consider tl\is so important that we thought it advisable to cable you. " We have reported from time to time of several of the smaller companies having to take up River Plate meat in the absence of New Zealand meat, bnt we regret exceedingly to have to report that one of our best clients (a company who have the very highest-class shops, and who have confined their operations in the past almost exclusively in New Zealand mutton and lamb) has informed us that they will not touch a carcass of New Zealand mutton and lamb so long as the present prices are demanded. They have already made arrangements for supplies of River Plate meat from the American firms. They regret as much as we do being forced to this, But what we fear is that if New Zealand as a whole insists on prices which will not enable the retailer to continue in the New Zealand meat trade the shops that we opened exclusively for the sale of New Zealand meat will be used for the sale of River Plate. "To us it seems almost a disaster that this should happen, and looking at it purely from a business point of view we consider it a national blunder. To our mind the main thing is to keep the channels of trade open, and to steadily try to improve the price and the condition of the business. On the other-hand, if the New Zealander through ignorance, asks a price which circumstances do not demand, it will result in this channel (which has been exclusively for the New Zealand trade) being diverted to the River Plate.

" Please remember that the New Zealand shops have been doing a trade largely on the name

and reputation of the meat. Meantime the freeze and the quality of the River Plate meat have decidedly improved, and there is no question but that the way in which they have their carcasses dressed is so vastly superior to that of New Zealand that in this alone they have the advantage. "We still believe that good prices will be obtained throughthe season, provided the forward buyers have a chance of covering a portion of their requirements, and the high prices which are ruling for wool and pelts should enable the New Zealand farmer to sell his stock at higher values than he has ever clone before, and yet put us in a position to continue the trade. We think it will be wise policy to go on selling, because we believe that if the buyers are not steadily supplied there will be an accumulation of stocks here, and the future will b:come most uncertain."