MEAT PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 59, 7 September 1945, Page 8

MEAT PRICES

COST OF FAT STOCK

"VERY AWKWARD QUESTION"

"Will the Minister immediately consider raising the subsidy payable to the butchers on all meat sold, on account of the high price being paid for fat stock at the present time?" acked Mr. A. S. Sutherland (National, Hauraki), in conjunction with Mr. W. S. Goosman (National, Waikato), in the House of Representatives $9day in an urgent question addressed to the Minister of Supply (Mr. Sullivan). Mr. Sutherland said the recent suggestion by the Minister that butchers could have meat released from the freezing chambers was not satisfactory in the Auckland Province, because of the humidity of the weather.

The Minister replied that, as he had indicated previously, the high prices being paid for fat stock at auction sales were due to the competitive auction system which butchers generally were not willing to abandon. The Armed Forces in the Pacific used satisfactorily large quantities of frozen meat under more humid conditions than prevailed in the Auckland Province. In the circumstances it was considered that the arrangements made to release frozen meat would meet the position arising from any temporary shortage of fat stock. The Government did not, therefore, contemplate raising the retail subsidy payable to butchers because of the high prices being paid for fat stock at present.

Mr. Sullivan added that there had not been time to examine adequately the question asked by the members and some aspects of the position might have to be examined further, but in the meantime the answer he had given appeared to be the correct one. Mr. W. J. Poison (National, Stratford) asked whether the Minister realised that if the policy mentioned were pursued farmers would not fatten stock in the winter.

The Minister said there had been difficulty practically throughout the war. Satisfactory answers to the question, however, had been found and they had managed to carry on. and he had no doubt they would find solutions to the problem .in the immediate future just as they had done in the past. But members would realise it was a very difficult and very awkward question. No hasty decision would be made.