126 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



This colony also provides cold-storage facilities 

 at a low charge. It maintains a produce commis- 

 sioner in London. That government undertakings 

 of this sort are familiar in New Zealand may be seen 

 from the matter-of-fact tone of the following news 

 item from a New Zealand paper in 1900: 



"The agricultural department has decided to 

 make its first shipment of poultry to London in 

 February. The department has arranged to kill 

 and dress all birds sent to the depots to be estab- 

 lished at each of the four chief ports, and it will 

 also be willing to send them to the home market 

 at the risk of the owner. A small charge will be 

 made for killing, dressing, and packing. The cost 

 of shipping the birds to London will be equally 

 reasonable."^ 



At one time New Zealand products were under 

 the domination of a shipping ring. In order to 

 break the monopoly the government threatened to 

 establish a line of its own, and the ring was broken. 

 The parliamentary committee appointed to investi- 

 gate the matter even advised the government to 

 look into the possibilities of procuring steamers for 

 conveying coal purchased by the government at the 

 port of shipment and the opening of retail agencies 

 mider state control. 



The state of West Australia, stretching across 

 the whole western third of the continent, has its own 

 steamers for carrying meat from the sheep-raising 



1 Newest England, Henry D. Lloyd, p. 333. 



