BUTCHERS CHARGED

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 122, 18 February 1944, Page 6

BUTCHERS CHARGED

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, February 16. Four butchers were charged in the Magistrates’ Court, today before Mr. Chisholm, S.M., with breaches of price orders relating to meat. Each defendant was convicted and fined. Mr. G. D. Hutchison, for the prosecution, said the prices had been fixed by the Price Tribunal after consultation with the. interested parties. The fact that a profit might not be made on one line over a short period did not justify an increase in the price of that line. In the present cases the excess prices charged by defendants had in most cases been only a halfpenny or one penny, but, however small the excess, it was unfair to competitors, who were abiding by the price order. „ „ For the defence, Mr. C. S. Thomas said his clients were pleading guilty as clearly they had committed a breach of the price order. The butchers’ retail prices had been fixed, but no ceiling had been put on wholesale prices. Under a price order of 1939 retail beef prices were based on the purely assumed wholesale prices of 36/- per 1001 b. in the flush of the season and up to 48/- in the winter. Last year, when the offences were committed, the wholesale price of beef in the flush'of the season was 41/6 and in the other season it rose to 75/-. In both seasons the wholesale market had been right above retail prices, and the butchers had been involved in a loss varying between £2/4/- and £lO/16/- a. head on every body of 8001 b. The butchers were paying for stabilization out of their own pockets, said Mr. Thomas. There was no reason why they should be asked to keep down the cost of living and it was obvious they could not carry on. lie said it was understood that meat rationing was not far off, and the butchers thought.this would be a solution of the difficulties. One defendant was fined £2 on each of two charges. Two others trading in partnership were each fined £1 on one charge. The fourth defendant, who pleaded not guilty to three charges of offering to sell meat at a price in excess of that allowed, was fined £2 on each charge.