MEAT PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 63, 14 March 1919, Page 8

MEAT PRICES.

ARE THE DOMINIONS PROFITEERING ? __IGH COMMISSIONER'S REPLY. lyYo _, Our Specinl f'orres-pou_ent.> LONDON. January 21. Sir Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand, who presided on Tuesday at a meeting of the Cold Storage and Ice Association at the Royal Society of Arts, said he wished to correct the false impression in the old Country that the overseas dominions -wore exploiting the British public. There was no such exploitation on the part of Australia or New Zealand. He gathered from a statement made by Major Astor, Food Control Department, that the. price paid for American meat ranged up to 1/1 per lb, but he (Sir Tnomas) understood that American and all other meats were sold at one uniform price.

New Zealand had sold her wool, her butter, and her cheese to the Home people at reasonable prices, and had renewed the contracts for meat at the terms which prevailed iv lOlu', the f.o.b. prices per lb being:—Mutton, 4d to 3d J lamb, 4<l to GAd; and beef, 4_d to sd. To these prices must be added freight and other charges before landing, say, 3d per lb. These prices were quoted in order to assist the British Government to provide good, wholesome meat for the Army at a moderate cost, the surplus to go to the British consuming public at a reasonable price.

If it was contended that the British Government had to pay certain rates in America in order to secure the meat and then, buying at a lower figure from the dominions, averaged the price over all, that had nothing whatever to do with the dominions. It was never the intention of New Zealand to sell her splendid meat at a low price in order that •high prices might be paid to American packers. The wholesale price of mutton nnd lamb in this country was 1/ to 2/, according to cut, legs being 1/9$ and shoulders 1/7. The wholesale price of beef was 1/3. and the retail prices ranged from 1/3 to 2/4, sirloin bein"1/10_, ribs 1/10, and steak 2/4,