Meat Stocks May Cover Easter

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31029, 7 April 1966, Page 1

Meat Stocks May Cover Easter

Enough of most meats is expected to be available at city and suburban butchers’ shops in Christchurch today to last over Easter, but only if there is no panic buying.

\\ hen butchers reopen at 730 a.m. on Tuesday rationing is likely at many shops.

An attempt yesterday to settle the strike at the Christchurch city abattoirs failed, and killing will not resume at the abattoirs, where 115 men are on strike, before Tuesday morning at the earliest.

Most butchers ap- r proached yesterday ! said that sales were j greatly above normal. The proprietor of the Worcester Street Butchery, Ltd (Mr H. Brook) yesterday said j he was already rationing • lamb. He was so short of lamb j that he could not accept any j orders for lamb over the telephone. nor would he sell . whole lambs, sides, or legs. ‘ “Impossible” I, “It is quite impossible to 1 1 fulfil these orders.” said Mr! Brook. He said that because he would not be able to get meat in till Wednesday he might 1 be out of sausages, saveloys, . and Continental smallgoods ] by Tuesday or Wednesday. , He had enough mutton, ; pork, and beef for today's sales, but expected to be ] short by closing time. Panic 1 buying today could cause chaos on Tuesday. I 1 Big Demand The proprietor of the Ric- 1 carton Cash Butchery (Mr P. I Dargan) said that he sold more meat yesterday than he I would normally sell on a ; Wednesday and Thursday i combined. 1 Housewives had said they were buying Easter supplies • early because of the strike. Mr Dargan said that nor- 1 mally he had about 12 orders < to prepare in an evening for t the following day. But he i

i estimated he would be busy | till 9 o’clock last night prei paring 100 orders. Those he I did not finish last night would have to be completed at 5 a.m. today. Mi Dargan said that his butchery and a friend’s butchery in Clyde road were likely to be out of most meats on Tuesday and Wednesday. “Even if the strikers at the abattoirs go back on Tuesdaymorning, we won't be able to get any meat into our butcheries before Thursday next week,” he said. ‘'Flat Out” A member of the staff of the Papanui Butchery said at 4 p.m. that he was “flat out.” He added: “By 5 p.m. tomorrow we will be lucky to have a pound of sausages left.” Most supermarkets selling packaged meat had enough to last today. A woman with a big deepfreeze in her house was yesterday refused a request for three weeks’ meat supply by a St Albans butcher on the ground that it would be unfair to other customers. By 7.30 a.m. yesterday the butcher at Borthwick’s works at Belfast was doing a roaring trade. The meat was killed at the works. The general manager of C. F. M. Sales, Ltd. (Mr E. Worthington) said his company had 17 shops in Christchurch which gained most of their supplies from their own works.

“I understand some butchers are short of meat,” said Mr Worthington. “We will probably be short too.” Parties Meet The dispute over pay rates at the abattoirs was not settled at a conference yesterday afternoon beween employers’ representatives and those of the Canterbury Freezing Workers’ Union. The meeting was called by the South Island Conciliation Commissioner (Mr S. W. Annstrong). An employers’ representative at the conference —the assistant-managing director of the abattoirs company (Mr K. Churchward) —said that no decision had been made, at this stage, on when killing would be resumed at the abattoirs. But no killing would be done by abattoir workers before Tuesday morning. Mr Churchward said that union representatives would report to men at the abattoirs at 8 a.m. on Tuesday the results of the conference and tell them of Mr Armstrong’s suggestions for a setlement. Hospitals The union, said Mr Churchward, had agreed to allow meat to be supplied from freezing works to hospitals, old people’s homes, and convalescent homes. Asked whether butchers would kill their own meat, Mr Churchward said: “We have made no decision at this stage for killing meat. It will all depend on what happens on Tuesday.” The executive of the Canterbury Meat Retailers’ Association would meet next Tuesday to decide what would happen if the abattoir workers did not start again on Tuesday, he said.