MEAT SUPPLIES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12794, 12 June 1909, Page 4

MEAT SUPPLIES.

In view oi' the extremely low price of meat on the London market, any mforinalum conveying the possibility of an improvement "in values will bo received with great pleasure by colonial suppliers. According to an English agricultural authority, one of the great ''packers" in the Uuited States has committed himself to the opinion that meat of all kinds will be dearer within the next six months than we have seen it for man' years. He points out that they are 20,000,0001 b short of supply now, and that there is the prospect of a greater shortage in the future. This, of course, means that the price will rise according to the law of supply and demand. Whether or not we are on the eve of greater prices all round in the immediate future it is certain, according to this authority, that these will come some time. He goes on to say: For more than thirty years now food has been sold at lese than its value, a condition of matters that may be verified by comparing the prices of, say, 1875 with those of to-day. This, of course, everyone knows to have been due to the development of the immense plains of the West, of Argentina, and of many other places, where wheat, beef, and other things could be produced, on a gigantic scale at a very low cost, thus glutting the markets of this country. The population of the civilised earth has been increasing all these years, however, and the first and greatest rush of food production is past, and we are not likely in the future to see th over-production we have been accustomed to. The size of the earth is limited, but the increase of human beings is unlimited, and it is certain that pressure will come some time. We are not likely to see actual famine ever again, such as we read of in history, but it is certain that the ordinary necessaries pf life will rise to their former prices, and there w«ll be a chance to make farming pay once more. A very high price for farm produce is not an unmixed good for farmers, for our modern society is so complex and is so interdependent that it would bring other evils with it, but we could stand a considerable rise, before we reach the prices of the "good times" or before we become bloated plutocrats.