THE PRICE OF BUTCHERS' MEAT IN WELLINGTON.

Evening Post, Volume XLIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1892, Page 4

THE PRICE OF BUTCHERS' MEAT IN WELLINGTON.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir—" Small Butcher's " reply to my first letter has one ijood thing about it. It is very brief— altogether too brief to satisfy me and (in my opinion) the majority of your readers. He made it brief enough, so as to ovade and ignore the main points and the sum and substance of my first letter concerning tho vast difference in the price of prime cuts suppled to hotels and boardinghouses, and what tho retuil cash customer baa to pay for them. Not tho slightest allusion is made to it. He's more " ingenious than inffennous." In writing this, I contend that, being an amateur, I'm discussing the subject rather at a disadvantage. 1 have to get my information secondhand, and in a roundabout way, whereas he is " in the know " every day. That makes a difforonue. I said, " meat at Johnaonville coats about 2d or 2{d por lb, live weight." I was reforring moro particularly to the pricos that have boen ruling for the past month or bo. Ono can provo a lot by figures— on paper especially. But I don't believe in quibbling or splitting hairs. I take things approximately, and I will take average prices. Freeman R. Jackson says, " good bullocks made from £8 to £9 155," average .£8 17s 6d. Unfortunately, no weights are mentioned. A lot depends on the size and weight. I reckon a steor (that is if it's a good ono) ought to go Bowt or 9cwt, live weight. Take an average of Bicwt, or 9521b. Say a particular lot averaged .£8 17s 6d each, and would run BJowt., they would not cost 2id a lb, as 9521ba x 2|d = 18s Gd. It must be taken into consideration that the hide is worth at least 14s or 15s, and there's tho tongue, tripe, horns, offal— it's all worth a fuw shillings. I can't bny a tonguo under 2s 6d or 3s. Even tho blood is utilised. I won't bewilder your readers with a long array of figures iv further support. Reckon a sheep to go 801bs, cost say 17s 6d, that's a trifle over 2id a lb. Then there's tho skin worth 3s or 4s (London quotation 17th August — Drybutoher skins, 5s 3d) ; but they would bo worth moro now. I'm willing to yield any doubt in favour of my opponent. Evon if meat doeß cost not " lesß than 2^d to 3{dlive weight," and being charged 2^d by his wholesale butcher, why should a hotelkeeper get it at 3|d a lb, and, say, 5d or Cd? I've figured it out, and reckon that the big butchering concerns must lose money by supplying hotels and boarding-houses. Evidently "Small Butcher" buys from a wholesale butcher. Both have to make a profit. The moat companies of course buy their own cattle, and reap any benefit on the hides, skins, &0., that "Small Butcher's" wholesale man gets. By tho way, I've often wondered why it is that butchers' hawking carts go by the namo of "gold mines," &o. My aim, sir, first going off, was not to exposo or show up the fair and just profits of established butchers, but to exposo tho vast difference in the retail prices to hotels and retail customers. I fail to see " how I could make a small fortune by re-selling to tho many retail butchers," as it has been suggested, even if it cost l£d a lb. Butchering is not my trade. I have no ambition to learn it either, at my time of life, and what I can see of it, there is quite enough butchers and other tradesmen in Wellington to supply tho wants of double the popnlation already. Rumour has it that a great many retail butchers in a big way are losing money " hand over fist." I am told that moat is supplied to Home vessols in the harbour at 2Jd per lb, not carcase meat either. Yet my friend makes out it costs that, or more, live weight. Beef in London averages at present about 3d per lb ; it costs about J of a penny in expenses to place it on tho London market. If it is sold at 3d— costs nearly a Id to get on the London stall — it cannot be bought for more than 2d to get a very small profit. Can any butcher toll me how it's dono, oven if it oosts l|d a lb ? Hntt settlers tell me they get 3Jd per lb from tho Quay butchers for prime fresh carcase pork, delivered. The hotelkoeper must get it, then, at that rate, at oost prioe, while we, the publio, pay Gd and 7d. Is that fair or justP Again I say the whole system of trading is wrong, and I very muoh doubt if it meets the approval of any respeotable butcher ; one does it simply because the other does it— a cutthroat game. Finally, if Mr. Heaton and the public only think for themselves, they can easily sea that this all-round price bnsinoss is the cause, or partly so, of the exorbitant pricos to us. lam, &c, Live and Let Live. 19th August, 1892.