NO MEAT FOR SUNDAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 11111, 8 May 1911, Page 4

NO MEAT FOR SUNDAY.

EURLY CLOSING PUZZLES THE PUBLIC. There were not a few who had to go without meat for yesterday's dinner, through not heeding the butcher's warnin- Though announcements had been made that the butchers' shops would be closed at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. on Saturday and thereafter, many forgot and others had not heard, with the result that many homes were left meatless yesterday. The butchers anticipated a big rush between G p.m. and i p.m., and mado ample preparation, but the rush did not come at all-it was the same quiet hour as heretofore, a hero were a good many side-door inquirers after 7 p.m., but they could not be seryed-the law does not provide for those who have omitted to purchase before the new advertised time of closing. The butchery business is, as a matter of fact, passing through something very like a crisis. With the high price of sloclt rihitig during the pnst fix months, there has not been anything of a margin to speak of, and now, too, cattle are short, owing to the vast numbers in tho South and North Island which have had to bo hurried off to tho slaughterhouses for lack cf pasturage. Some districts which lu'.vc had a phenomenally dry autumn are all but denuded of calik , , and the iierds will take some timo to build up again. On top of this, ram , wascs and shorter hours were demanded by emnloyoi.s in town, and mors jranWl. Pincn' then the Gear Moat Company, which has boon carrying on a big retail business in Cuba Street for over a quarter of a century, Iw (riven up through being unable to get a return on the capital involved. The same firm has wild out its retail business in Tamialti Street, and the Levin Meat Company, of Onvlenay Plnce, has Riven up* (lie ptrußßle of trying to make ends meet. If the process is continued, the retail meat business will be driven into tho hands of a few, who will be in a position to charge what they like. iTero is the cause and cfi'ect of the ovp.r-incrcaf-ing cost of living in a nutshell. Meanwhile tho public is cautioned to shop before 7 p.m. on Saturdays,