PRICE OF MEAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1124, 11 May 1911, Page 2

PRICE OF MEAT.

THE POSITION AT AUCKLAND. (By TelccrapH.—Special Correspondent.) '' Auckland, May 9. According to the new list issued by the Master Butchers' Association, restaurant, hoi-el, and boardinghouse proprietors will no longer receive the concK-sion oi: an all-round price for meat, which until recently was tho custom. In consequence tho proprietors concerned feel very keenly about tho matter. Tho secretary of the-Master Butchers' Association explained the position from the butchers' standpoint. He said that for some years past, and during a period when the prices ruling in- the fat stock market did not come near to th<; high rate that had ruled recently, it was customary for the proprietors of hotels, rc?tanrants, and boardinghouses to contract with tho butchers serving them to suitply all their requirements at a fixed,, allround price, which, until recently, ranged from 3!d. to sd. per lb., according to the class of hotel or boardinghouse being served. The price of meat .in the fat stock market had, however, risen to such abnormally high figures that the auctioneers had found it necessary to limit the credit given to their, .customers to thirteen days, with tho ■ result that the butchers had been compelled in self-de-fence to do away altogether with tho all-round price, and insist that hotels, restaurant, and boardinghouse proprietors be charged the list price, the same ns householders. The secretary pointed out that within the past three mouths six or seven local butchers had either become bankrupt or had compromised with their creditors, and this result, it was considered, was due to the absurd system of cutting prices. Mr. Prior, chairman of the Restaurantkeepers' Committee that waited on the Master Butchers' Association in reference to the increased prices, informed a.-repor-ter that-unless the butchers assumed adifferent attitude it would- mean that a number of restaurant-keepers would haveto close their establishments,- or raise tho price of meals. The committee, he said, intended to formulate- a definite course of action.