MEAT FREEZING CHARGES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 86, 13 April 1940, Page 6

MEAT FREEZING CHARGES

DEPUTATION TO MINISTER MR. NASH NOW INVESTIGATING Delegates representing Wanganui farmers, who went to Wellington on Thursday regarding f.o.b. charges on meat, attended the Meat Board’s office, where they interviewed the Meat Comptroller, Mr. A. H. Cockayne, and Mr. R. M. Forsyth. Mr. T. Duncan, chairman of the Meat Producers' Board, was present at the interview. The position was there canvassed and arrangements made to put the position before the Minister of Marketing, Mr. Nash. At a subsequent interview with Mr. Nash, the Minister enquired of the Meat Comptroller whether the increase in charges which the farmers objected to had been the subject of a request on the part of the New Zealand Refrigerating Company to the Meat Comptroller, in accordance with their own resolution to work on last year’s charges. The Meat Comptroller advised the Minister that no request had been made to him to secure his agreement to the increased charges and that he had not consented to the increase. The deputation then left the matter in the hands of the Minister of Marketing to proceed further with his investigations, the Minister having remarked that at present there was nn evidence to show why last year's charges should be departed from. He had to be quite fair in the matter,

however, and hear what the company had to say. Members of the deputation who went to Wellington were Mr. T. Currie, Brunswick, provincial president of the New Zealand Farmers* Union and chairman of the committee, Messrs. P. A. O'Neill and A. Macnab (Wanganui), R. Campion (Fordell), W. Matthews and O. J. Hawken (Waverley), H. G. Birch (Maxwell), L. Hammond (Rata) and J. Kennedy (Karioi). Mr. Currie said that farmers would have to await developments as the matter was out of their hands. No explanation of what was likely to he done could be given, but farmers felt that they were a step nearer to satisfaction, he said.