CATTLE EXPORT TRADE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1419, 23 October 1923, Page 5

CATTLE EXPORT TRADE.

A LUCRATIVE VISITOR. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Monday. Mi- Keith McLean, of Gippsland, who has been operating largely in the purchase of fat cattle for shipment to Australia, returned home by the Ulimaroa yesterday. Mr McLean has been a welcome visitor to New Zealand, as during his seven trips to the Dominion he has purchased no fewer than 4800 head of cattle. It is estimated that'he has paid £55,000 to the New Zealand farmers for these cattle. He must have spent £2500 in hay alone, and have paid over £30,000 to the Union Steam Ship Company for the carriage of the bests, while the New Zealand railways must have benefited to the extent of £2500. In conversation with a Dominion reporter before his departure, Mr McLean stated that he was only too ready to do business again. If he came back next year and could give the farmers their prices they, too, would only be too ready to do business with him. He was very pleased with the way in which the farmers from whom he had bought cattle had treated him, and the attention and help they had given him in getting the cattle to a railhead.

"It appears to me," said Mr McLean, "that cattle will come clown in price, and will be back to £1 per 100 lb by Christmas time, which means that an 8001 b bullock will make £B. Fat cattle last week fell at Melbourne as much as £5 and £6 per head. They had had such a generous rainfall in Australia that there should be plenty of fat cattle there in the near future." Mr McLean stated that the fattening breedß of bullocks -\in New Zealand compared most favourably with the best breeds in Australia, particularly with regard to Shorthorns, Hlerefords, Hereford crosses, and Polled Angus.