quarter of beef exported, though, in fact, rates amounting to 
only half the charges authorised have so far been levied. 
The course of prices in Great Britain since January, 1922, has 
heen, on the whole, satisfactory for the New Zealand producer, 
50 that the Board has had no reason to exercise its wider powers 
and to control the actual marketing of the meat here. It has 
exercised its authority in other directions, notably in the appoint- 
ment of expert graders, in the elimination of small parcels from 
shipment, and in the reduction in the number of marks under 
which goods are shipped. By making freight contracts with 
the shipping companies on behalf of the producers as a whole, 
't has been able to obtain reductions in, and a more economical 
use of, shipping freights, as well as a reduction in marine insur- 
ance rates and railway rates in New Zealand. It has also 
appointed a London representative who safeguards the interests 
of the producers in this country, and furnishes information, day 
by day, as to the trend of the British market. It is also repre- 
sented in the Argentine. The Board watches the development 
of new markets and interests itself in the proper advertisement 
of New Zealand meats. It displays considerable public spirit 
by the regular publication of details of shipments and of 
quantities held in Dominion cold stores. 
The Board has been criticised for its action in regulating 
shipments. Since a normal season in Australia for mutton and 
amb ends about March and that in New Zealand about June 
or July, it follows that, if carcases were shipped as treated, mutton 
and lamb from these Dominions would arrive in the first eight 
months of the year and there would be no shipments during the 
remaining four. This does not mean that in the bare months 
there would be no frozen mutton or lamb on the market for, 
during the time of over-supply, the cold-stores would be utilised 
antil supplies were short. This, however, is not a desirable 
arrangement for, when arrivals are heavier than necessary to 
meet current demand, the day-to-day market is depressed out 
of proportion to the quantities arriving or on offer. There are 
always weak sellers on a market and, in a market for perishable 
or quasi-perishable goods, their presence may be disastrous. 
Moreover, the prices which merchants are prepared to offer for 
forward delivery are governed by the quantities expected from 
all sources at the time when their purchases will arrive, so that 
unnecessarily large shipments arriving together in, say, the 
sarly part of the year, will send down forward prices and also, 
of course, spot prices at the same time. The Board’s regulation 
of shipments is designed to avoid any such glut during the early 
part of the season; it also prevents the high prices which normally 
ruled after August, when supplies were scarce. These high 
prices do not pay the producer, because they are spread over a 
small portion of his output and are obtained at the cost of a low 
price for the rest. The Board aims at the ideal of an equated 
lemand and supply at any moment. In one sense, therefore.