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["Government as Wholesale Butcher", The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Saturday 31 August 1912, page 12]
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He (Mr. Johnson) used to be of exactly the same opinion. He was a member of the Royal Commission which recommended the establishment of freezing works, but when he visited Wyndham on his recent trip he changed his opinion absolutely. He found that the erection of freezing works at Wyndham was so costly an undertaking that the price of the frozen meat at Wyndham would be as great as the price at Fremantle unfrozen. To make provision for the necessary water supply at Wyndham would cost as much as the whole expense of the erection of freezers in any other part of Australia. Making allowance for the interest on the huge capital cost and for working expenses, they could not freeze at a rate to enable them to market meat at a lower price than to-day. Many people had the idea that Western Australia was practically confined to the Kimberleys for its supply of meat. If that were so they would be justified in trying to overcome the enormous difficulties in the way of establishing freezing works at Wyndham. But the fact was that there were sufficient stock raised south of the Kimberleys to supply all the demands of Western Australian consumers. The difficulty was that the people who controlled the meat trade down here also controlled the Kimberleys, and they said, "We will only allow Kimberley cattle to come down." The boats ran straight to Wyndham and returned direct to Fremantle, so that the man between was completely shut out. People thus got the impression that we were dependent on the Kimberleys, but in ordinary circumstances and in ordinary seasons they could avoid going to Wyndham or even, perhaps, to Derby, supplies being drawn from the Ashburton and the Murchison, whence the cattle would come down often by water, but more often overland. He was, however, prepared to admit that it was the duty of the State to give the Kimberleys an outlet for their stock. Recent developments in the islands had provided that outlet. The people of Java and the Philippines, even the coloured races – who had previously subsisted on rice – were now looking for a supply of beef. These islands were so close to our doors that we could supply from the Kimberleys cheaper than from any other part of Australia.
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