The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1935. THE MEAT LEVY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 59, 12 March 1935, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1935. THE MEAT LEVY

"THE New Zealand Government is well placed to protest against the meat levy proposal of the British Government because it would affect New Zealand adversely without conferring a correspending benefit upon English agriculture. The principal interest of English farming is beef production, and it is the presence of large supplies of beef that is causing the dislocation of the British meat market. To tax New Zealand mutton would not help the British beef producer, save, of course, that the latter would share in the proceeds of the levy. The United Kingdom does, of course, raise a considerable amount of mutton and lamb, but the home supply goes to the top of the market and New Zealand frozen lamb and mutton does not compete with it to any extent. The United Kingdom has recently been compelled to receive on its market a considerable quantity of beef which is not in first-class condition, simply because the farmers have marketed the beasts in consequence of a lack of feed. Cattle have therefore reached the market in poor condition and in larger quantities than would have been the ease had the weather been normal during last summer in the northern hemisphere. The conditions have consequently been favourable for those who advocate a restrictive policy for meat imports into the United Kingdom. A chronic oversupply has resulted m the farmers in England receiving a very low income from this department of agriculture. The New Zealand Government's reply emphasises the fact that not only must British agriculture be considered, but that, the export trades must be thought of as well. New Zealand has done better than any other Dominion in extending facilities to exports from the United Kingdom, and this must be remembered when the United Kingdom is dealing with the Dominions.