PRICE OF MEAT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 50, 27 August 1914, Page 3

PRICE OF MEAT

DUE TO A VARIETY OF CAUSES OBIGINATING BEFORE THE WAR. An advance has 'been made in the retail price of meat, and it coincides with the progress of the war in Europe. According to enquiries made by The Post yesterday in retail and wholesale quarters the, rise in the price of beef, at any rate, •was, it is claimed, inevitable, war or no war. This, it is stated, was due to a variety of causeß quite independent of the war, causes existing for some time before hostilities broke out. Some of the factors operating to keep the price of beef high were expprt-buying competition, the development of the dairying industry and its effects upon beef weights, the high prices of land, the usual seasonable shortage, combined with the demand for, troopships and the High prices ruling in England. With regard to competition : It was learned that for some time past buyers have been forced to pay longer prices than they would have done on the market conditions warranted for both beef and mutton on account of alleged, American competition. Not much is said aloud, but a good deal is whispered of the operations of British-buying firms acting' in American interests. "No matter what our buyers' may offer, there are always these other buyers ready with another ' farthing up their sleeves," -was the remark made by a gentleman practically iamiliar with sales all over the North Island. The farmer, of course, takes the best price offered, and more power to him. i Still, this kind of thing had mlide stock of all kinds very dear i for both the Home and local trade. One could not expect the farmer, for even patriotic reasons, to turn down high prices for stock, or to be a party to lowering the tone of the market. Then^ as to the dairying industry and land values — it was ascertained that these were by no means negligible factors. Dairy development had brought a class of light-weight animals into the tfiarketH-steers of dairying stock. They did not give the beef-weights, in avoirdupois, that cattle raised solely for beef would yield. Again, land that was used for beef cattle, in consequence of the spread of dairying, was going more and more into milk-raising, or having a milk-raisfng value put upon it by the holder, ivho would naturally expect it to yield lo him its full value in beef. At thili time of year (it ( was learned in another quarter) the beef is always dear Thnt its retail price had not been raised before was due to the wholesalers nol "passing it on." This year there had been Is l'ise on the usual rise made this time last year. It was now 31s, as catmpared with 28s. Mr. W ' G. Foster of the Meat Export

Co., a large supplier of retail butchers, quoted figures to shovr that, so far as his company was concerned, it made nothing out of supplying the retail butcher, as the conditions of that branch of the trade now existed in Wellington. It was always open, he said, to the butchers, singly or together, to go into the open market and buy stock and have it slaughtered at the municipal abattoirs. Indeed, he understood that that was the intention when the abattoirs were erected. His own company would be very glad to kill and dress and store the meat for the butchers. At anyrate, he could say this without hesitation, that, so far as liis company was concerned, the war had had nothing whatever to do with the rising of the price of beef or mutton. There were other causes. He did not tiink the retail butcher, considering the cost of delivery, bad debts, competition, and other difficulties incidental to his trade, was making a "fat thing" out of.it. TO THB EDITOR. Sir, — This advance in the price of meat imposed by_ the local aaeat exporting companies is an attempt to extort money from the pockets of the Wellington public by very unfair .means. t The writer's calling takes him all ovefr the country districts, and he can say truthfully that stock is very cheap in the North Island, and in fact many producets of fat stock picture a gloomy outlook for the future as far as prices are concerned. For your many readers' edification, I enclose the price of meat m Palmerston North, Christchurch, and' Wellington under yesterday's, date (241 th August). The striking discrepancies in the figures speak for themselves. Trusting you will give this matter your urgenti attention, as it affects the whole of the misses. — I am, etc., TB NGAIO. The discrepancies mentioned by the correspondent are summarised as follow from the three advertised lists he en-closes—^-one from a prominent butcher in Christchurch, the second fropi • a Palmerston North butcher, both advertised in the local papers of the towns, and the official announcement of the Wellington Master Butchers' Association, advertised in the Evening Post: — Mutton. — Forequar|ers, Wellington, 4^d, Palmerston North, 3d,. Christchurch, 3d ; chops, Wellington, ,7d, Palmerston North, sd, Christchurch from 4d ; legs, Wellington, 6£d, Palmerston North, sd, Christchurch not given. ; loins, Wellington, 6^d, Palmerston North, 4£d ; shoulders, Wellington, s£d, Palmerston North, 4d ; neck and breast, Wellington, 4d, Palmerston North, 3d ; hindquarters, Wellington, s£d, Palmerston North, 4£d. The Christchurch list does not shoulders, loins, neck and breast, and hindquarters. Beef.— Sirloin, Wellington, Bd, Palmerston North, 6^d, Christchurch, 6d ; ribs, Wellington, 6-id, Palmerston 'North, 4^d, dhristchurch, 4^d ; rump , steak, Wellington, lOd, Palmerston Nortft, 7d ; rolls of beef, Wellington, s^, Oliristchurch, sd ; beef steak, Wellington, 7d, Palmerston North. sd ; corn brisket, Wellington, s£d, Palmerston North, 4£d. Ohristchurch from 4d ; sausages, Wellington, sd, Palmerston North, 4d, Christchurch, 51b for Is ; tripe, Wellington, 6d, Palmerston North, , sd ; gravy beef, Wellington, sd, Palmevston North, 3d ; mince, Wellington, , sd, Palmerston North, 3d. Other pjrices are in much the same proportion.