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instance you could make any general statement as to the position as to whether trusts are operating in this country or are a danger to (he meat industry. We would like to hear your general experience of the matter?— I do not think, in sjiitc of all the talk we have hail in" the newspapers and elsewhere, that up to the present 1 can speak of my own knowledge of any operation of any meat trust in New Zealand. The registration of Messrs. Armour in this country has been the only direct evidence of their operation. I have not the slightest doubt about saying, as a New-Zealander and as the representative of British interests in New Zealand, that there is grave danger—very grave danger ahead from the operations of the American meat companies. One has only to look at the statistics to see that the four large American meat companies which have extended their operations outside .America have made very great progress in the last few years towards capturing all the supplies of meat which arc going to Great Britain. We see from the statistics that these four companies themselves have handled more frozen meat in Croat Britain than all the other interests put together. 1 would not, like to say that they have set to work to get control of New Zealand frozen meat. One of the things that strike one in connection with the operations of these concerns is that they are not like British companies. They never go out to do pioneer work. That is one of the objections I have to the operations of the big American interests. They generally use their enormous capital to manipulate established industries. After other men have done the pioneering work ami got, the trade into thorough working-order the American concerns come along and use their big capital to corner or capture the trade in sonic way and take the profits for themselves. British firms have never done that. The firm I represent has always conducted its operations on exactly opposite lines. I think that is one of the outstanding differences between the operations of the Americans ami the operations of the British linns which have interested themselves in the meat trade. I think you will agree that, although some people have objected to big business, it is only by big firms thai new countries can be opened up and the trade put on a broad basis. British firms such as the linn 1 represent, the Union Cold Storage Company, have gone out and developed new country in a big way. They tackled the development of the dairying business from Russia. They tried to tackle Rhodesia, and failed on account of very great disabilities there. They have tried to develop the Northern Territory of Australia. When tho Whangarei Freezing Company failed in the North of Auckland district they took it up and tackled it. They have never used their capital to try and do an in jus! ice to anybody else. They have tried where others have failed or where development was needed, and have done good in that way. Their attention has been directed very largely to development within the Empire of the available meat resources, so as to render them independent of any other field. This is diametrically opposed to the methods of those American companies. If they come to New Zealand you can rest assured that they will simply use the power of their big capital to manipulate tilings in sonic way so as to make a profit for themselves. They have never pioneered, and, as I said, that is one of the objections I have to them, and one of the objections the people have in Great Britain. A great advantage these American companies have had—one that has been greatly felt, I think, by our own people—is that in America they have paid no income-tax. They have always operated as far as possible in such a way as to avoid paying any taxation in Great Britain. That has always been the feeling with the British firms. The British firms have always felt that they were very greatly handicapped in that way. That feeling got so great that when the wax taxation came on that some of the interests outside Great Britain of the Union Cold Storage Company were transferred to the United States, simply to enable them to keep abreast of this competition in view of the disadvantages that British firms were under. This action was entirely against the feeling of the people connected with the firm, but it was the only way in which they could maintain their relative position against their American competitors. My feeling as regards New Zealand—l suppose you want an idea of preventive measures —is that it will be extremely difficult to devise means of dealing with fhe problem completely. 1 do not see how you can prevent the Americans entirely from doing business in New Zealand meat. I have not the slightest doubt that branches of American companies which represent wholesale interests in London have been handling New Zealand meat all the time. They cannot do without it: they must have New Zealand lamb and mutton. 1 dare say they could do without our beef, because they can get supplies from South America, but they must have a proportion of our lamb and mutton for their trade. They must have been buying meat, though not openly, in past years. Armour's are now buying openly. Previously they must have been buying through the brokers, most likely from the brokers who arc doing the c.i.f. business. That may be quite legitimate business. I do nol see how, without the assistance of fhe British Government, New, Zealand can prevent the Americans handling c.i.f. sales. It is quite evident to me as the representative of a British firm that if there were not firms like ourselves operating in New Zealand it would be quite possible for the Americans to control the New Zealand meat business without coming near it at all. If there were ,no firms here but small linns that were offering small parcels through the brokers in hondon it would be quite possible for the Americans, with their huge capital, to buy up the whole of the free offerings coming forward from New Zealand—that is to say, the meat frozen on owners' account in New Zealand and offered through various channels in hondon on owners' account. I have felt ever since I. took up this business that we were doing very useful work, in that so long as there is a reasonable body of meat controlled by British firms like ourselves who ship to wholesale market stores, so long as we hold a fair proportion of that meat, sufficient, to make it unsafe for outside operators to dictate the market, we are fairly secure. The Americans can never tell accurately that they hold sufficient meat at any one time to enable them to control the prices. I mention this beoause there is some misunderstanding, I think. There has been a suggestion in the Press that all capital that is not New Zealand capital should be prohibited from investment in frozen-meat industry. It seems to me that the gravest possible