PRICE OF MEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 197, 20 August 1940, Page 9

PRICE OF MEAT.

ADJUSTMENT MADE.

ID PER POUND DEARER.

W ELLTXGTOX, Monday

Hie price of meat will be one penny a pound higher from to-morrow. A statement issued by the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, tonight, announces that in accordance with previous statements by him it ha? now become necessary to make a further adjustment in the retail price of meat. In his earlier announcements the Minister pointed out the. inadvisahility of introducing a complicated method of supervision of auction prices or the institution of any system which might have the effect of debarring the farmer from being adequately compensated for the extra cost of cattle fattened during the winter for spring sale.

In order to protect both the public and the producer it had been decided that the whole situation would best be dealt with bv the regulation of retail prices. Ihe Price Tribunal had approved as ;'rom July 1 an increase in the retail price of meat to the extent of a halfpenny a pound. It was realised at the time that a further final rise was inevitable to cover the more difficult period from August to Xovember. Accordingly, a further increase of a penny a pound, which will operate from to-morrow, has been approved.

As previously, this is a permissive, not an obligatory, increase.. Bacon and other goods commonly known to the trade as small goods arc again excluded from the scope of the order.

The new price order has this redeeming feature, that, while imposing an increase, it provides also a reduction in prices. Oil the first days of Xovember. December and January next prices will drop a halfpenny a pound, with the result that by January 1 the total increases approved will have been wiped out and prices will be back to normal.— (Press Assn.)