BUTCHERS' REPLY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 63, 11 September 1937, Page 10

BUTCHERS' REPLY

Inquiries were made today from Mr. W. J. Mount joy, secretary of the Wellington Master Butchers' Industrial Union of Employers, who suggests that the prices obtained at the Feilding sale held yesterday are a gooa indication of the high prices ruling for stock throughout the country. The position, he states, is well explained by the fact that beef reached the high price yesterday of 40s per hundred pounds for cow beef. Such a price was sensational.

"Polled. Angus-Hereford cross cows made £14 55," he said. "This price is 10s better than the previous best price and easily breaks all known Feilding records. The explanation is that there a definite shortage of beef in the country. For instance an 8001b bullock would bring £16.

"There is- also a scarcity of wethers. Fat ewes at the Feilding sales reached 425; prime wethers,,39s; good hoggets, 35s sd. In effect, a light wether weighing about 501b costs roughly 38s. Prices have not soared so high at any stage since the Great War. Another feature is the definite shortage of dry ewes.

"In view of these facts it cannot reasonably be suggested that master butchers are charging high prices for their meat; in fact, master butchers are, in some cases, having an exceedingly difficult time in making ends meet."