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Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 135, 8 June 1914, Page 2

>lr W.'-K Abbott, writing to the Sydney daily papers -upon the cause of the .present price of meat, Bays:—"A few weeks 1 .sent to Jlomebiish six trucks of prime crossbred rh-epp ....

i These sheep were sold through the market by auction, a price wliioh, alter doj<vctui<j iucjpaeeil railway and other ehargos, and 2.1 per r-ent. commission, returned mc net. including skins, tallow, tonpu-e-. and offiil. 13/3. Skins, tonjnic?. and tdllow -would he worth 4/ per hejid. so that I pot 4541b. of extra, primp mutton. !)/,■), a fraction more than ■id. per lb. The difference between that and what the. consumer has to pay is made up in increased wages to everyone •who has to handle the stuff, from the time it leases my Jiands until it is on the table of the consumer in Sydney, and in increased railway and carters' charges, as well as increased -wagee- and shorter hours for everyone who caters to the butchermir wa-de, or euppliee its .requirfimenU diiTf-41,v or indirnctly. .Slaughtermen. 1 nriw ma-kic £6 to l'S per week of 4S Jiours. when they ■work, and they are only one of many agencies that handle- .meat between the producer and consumer."

The freezing works in South Canterbury nnrl alsu thcwe in Ashburton are still working :it high pressure. The tu.ruiji crops :ir.' fiirniohin); more feed fur than it \\a-' anticipated they would ilo car'.ier in tlie year, ami the indications point to a record season Jm th& export -of irozen mutton and lamb.