DEARER RASHERS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 69, 21 March 1912, Page 10

DEARER RASHERS.

WHY CHEESE HAS INCREASED IN PRICK. * Dearer, even dearer, to parody a mid"Victorian love song, becomes the'breakfast rasher- and the compact boiling piece. Whether the cost of living in New Zealand' ib increasing or not is still a matter ior debate by superficial economists, but the fact that some things are dearer to-day (and others are no cheaper) cannot be denied. Take bacon. Hitherto the pig was the consumer of skhn milk, but the pig is a diminishing quantity in the dairying districts. "In the haste to got quick returns from the cqwg, calves were slaughtered in thousands at birth or thereabouts," said a local merchant speaking to "a Poet reporter. "Any foreeighted man could Bee that this waste (providing tho calves were of a good milking strain) would have to be met 4>ome day. Now, what has happened in the great Manaia district'/ Why,' 18,000 calves worn inoculated by the 'Government. The supply of cattle for beef has been allowed to run sis low as the' cows. Pigs were bred in profusion, but at 'the expense of the bovine population. > This ham now been changed, and pork -is exceedingly^ scares compared -with the demand for it fresh and cured. Here areprices to-day comparod with exactly a year ago :— ' • ' ' , 1911 ' 1912 per lb per lb Pigs, dead-weight ... 3id 4d bid s£d Bacon, sides ... ... 9|d 10|d Bacon rolls „„ ... • 7id - 8d Hams : ... ajd- 9d' Lard, path ..." ... 7£d B^d "The price* speak for themselves, and explain why bacon is dearer— want of enough pork meat to go round," said one intormaut. "Why, wo have had to import kid from Australia to meet our local needs." With regard to cheese, the cables show that it is realising an excellent price in London for the Now Zealand producer; but, tho local consumer is also called upon to pay high prices in proportion, notwithstanding that ho is living in the country of prolific cheese production. Good cheeie is being: mailed to-day in Wellington at lid and -Is per pound owing to all the factories with, comparatively npcakiug, but few^ exceptions having contracted with London firms for the sale of tho whole of the season's make, thus greatly reducing the" cheese available for tho New Zealanders' own consumption, and incidentallj materially advancing the price.