23 
companies and to the farmers, for it is in this period that initial 
prices are fixed and the first real information obtained regarding 
the season’s prospects. Estimates of the probable total output 
are prepared in the Dominion by the various works; these and 
particulars of the conditions of the stock and weather are cabled 
over for the information of traders in this country, who, equipped 
with similar details from other sources of supply, are enabled 
roughly to forecast selling prices. 
The works once opened, the stock-buyers continue to buy 
on the instructions of their employers. As the animals are 
killed and dressed, the British houses are advised, usually each 
day, by cable. The advice, as a rule, relates to round numbers 
of, say, 500 or 1,000, and gives quality and weights. The 
freezing works are in close communication with the shipping 
companies at the nearest port and make freight arrangements for 
their actual and expected killings so that they are usually able 
to advise the month of shipment at the same time as the other 
particulars referred to. When their advices are received in this 
country, the parcels are offered to various wholesale firms, unless 
the meat coming forward is the property of a firm owning whole- 
sale depots in this country and is required for that trade. As 
the meat is sold on the basis of these advices, the works are 
informed by cable; if the meat is not sold, advice is usually 
given as to the best time for shipping, or as to the port to which 
the goods should be consigned. The freezing works are also kept 
advised as to the course of the market and furnished with any 
other relevant information, such as the offers or sales being made 
by competing firms. The freezing works reciprocate by advising 
of any changes which may occur in the Dominion, of reports 
regarding the operations of other freezing works, and of sales 
reported to have been effected in this country by competitors. 
Obviously, the methods pursued in any one case vary rather 
with the financial resources of the various companies engaged in 
the Dominion trade rather than with the type of trading organisa- 
tion. This can be readily understood, as a trader with small 
capital must be careful in a business which is so speculative as 
the meat trade. It is often said that it is impossible to judge 
of the success of a meat firm on any one year’s trading, but that 
at least three years’ trading must be taken. A firm with good 
resources will usually follow the market on both sides. i.e., 
whether the market rises or falls in the Dominion, they will 
continue to buy and process; when the goods arrive here they 
will continue to sell, within certain limitations, whatever the 
prices may be. A firm with less eapital could not afford to 
pursue this policy, as one year of bad trading might devastate 
its resources; on the other hand, such a firm to operate with 
success needs good judgment at its head, as dodging in and out 
of buying and selling is a most difficult trading policy to maintain. 
Indeed, it must always be the aim of freezing works to ensure 
that, once the works are opened. stock passes throuch continuously