MEAT PROFITEERING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3196, 21 September 1917, Page 8

MEAT PROFITEERING

SUPPLIES FROM NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA SIR THOMAS MACKENZIE'S VIEWS "There are certaiu fundamental facts connected with the New Zealand and Australian frozen meat trade/' said Sir Thomas Mackenzie to a "BritishAnst/ajasian" representative, "which should be clearly stated in order to remove certain misapprehensions in the public mind. , In the first place, it should be known tliat from a very early stage of the war the supply of New Zealand mutton and lamb has boen under Government control. The same thing has also happened in regard to Australian beef and mutton. The meat from both sources was first commandeered in order to ensure an adequate and certain supply for the British Army, whether at the front or elsewhere. The War Office authorities have from the first aimed at building up a considerable reserve to guard against possiblo contingencies, such as ail interruption of consignments, either by loss or delay, arising from tho submarine menace. Week by week, however,'a certain quantity of New Zealand (mutton and lamb is released l\v the Government for civilian use. Sometimes 511,000 carcasses are- released from tho surplus stock, but tho total has fallen as low as 30,000 per week. "Now, before dealing with the disposal of this 'meat by the retailers, I should like to refer'lo the price.at which it is bought by the Government from tho New Zealand farmers, its landed cost on this side, and the price at which it passes into tho hands of the retailer. Tho prices paid in New Zealand to the farmer are:—For lamb GJd. per lb., and for mutton 4{d. per lb. The British publio as well as New Zealanders and Australians will readily see that there is absolutely no ground here on which to rest a charge of profiteering. The Australian and New Zealand producers hivyo from the first acted in a most patriotic, praiseworthy manner, and have not sought to line their pockets at the expense of the British consumer. The prices at which this meat i 6 sold by tho wholesale butchers to the retailers a;e:— For lamb IOJd. and for mutton 9d. per lb. How is this difference between tlieso prices and tho first cost accounted for? In. the first place cold storage charges at tho port of origin must be added, tnen freight, insurance, and demurrage, Xho last-mentioned is sometimes a. very lio.'ivy item owing to the prolonged delays which occur here before a vessel can bo discharged. Cold storage and transit charges on this 6ide and other incidentals havo also to be added.

"When the meat is released, and tlio total is only about one-fifth of the supply available in normal times, it ia sold to tho wholesalers by speciallyappointed Government agents who receivo a maximum commission of 2 per cent. Tho conditions under which it is sold are so rigid, a breach involving penalties, that all chance of cornering or profiteering is precluded. The wholesaler is not allowed to charge the retailer a profit exceeding id. per lb. Once the meat posses into the retailer's hands it is beyond Government control, and officially I have no further cognisanco of it. Tho point I wish to make, however, !b that up to that stage there is absolutely ito' profiteering. "It is, I believe, pretty, generally known that the home-grown supply of beef and mutton -represents HO per cent, of the total consumption, tho remaining 40 per cent, coining from overseas, chiefly, of course, Australia, New Zealand, and tho Argentine. The home-grown supply i§, however, quite uncontrolled both as regards distribution and price. In this important respect, therefore, it offers a most striking contrast'to and occupies a totally, different position from the New Zealand and Australian product. It is the chief source of tho retailers' prosont supplies, and the extent £o which homo prices have rison since the war is a matter of common knowledge in every: household. . And this price, it should be remembered, rulos the market.

"The quantify of New Zealand mutton and lamb which each retailer can now obtain week by week represents a very small percentage of what he bought in pre-war times, and contributes a still smaller' percentage of his present daily stocks. As his. profits on the home-grown meat are cut to a very 'narrow margin, the retailer, instead of selling tho small supply of New Zealand meat at an ordinary advance, asks and readily obtains the prico ruling for British neat, but it is only on a very small quantity that he can obtain so substantial an advance, and it may be fairly uigued that as a business man he is entitled to average his profits. "My chief concern has been bo clear the New Zealand and incidentally the Australian f*U'mers, shipowners a.nd agents from the most unjust and totally unfounded charge of profiteering. Beyond this I have no right or desire to go. The problem of the control of the home supply and of tho imported meat—vvhetlier from New Zealand, Australia, or the Argentine—that is made available for civilian use ly the Government seems to me to bo a matter with, whioh Lord Rhondda must deal."