THE PRICE OF MEAT.

Evening Star, Issue 23882, 12 May 1941, Page 8

THE PRICE OF MEAT.

TO THE EDITO*. Sir, —Recently there have been a large number cf statements made regarding the many difficulties being encountered in the meat trade—the lack of shipping to export frozen meat, the lack of storage space in this country to hold surplus meat until storage ships are available after the war, and the inability of the farmer to feed his sheep if he cannot dispose of them to the freezing works. There have been many proposed solutions for this problem, but that which has received most attention appears to be the conversion of the surplus sheep into fertiliser. On the face of it this appears to me to be a ridiculous waste. It seems analogous to growing a crop of turnips and then ploughing them under for manure. It Astonishes me that in a country such as ours, with one of the highest per capita productions of meqt, meat prices should be so preposterously high. Every housewife must know that it costs twice as much or more to buy a pound of mutton chops as it did a few years ago. I suggest that if we have such a tremendous surplus of meat it be put on the market to reduce prices. Of course, I realise it cannot all be offered for sale, because prices would fall so far that the farmer would receive nothin" for his sheep after paying the costs for killing, etc. I do not know now much the farmer receives for a sheep killed for consumption in New Zealand, but it surely must be a lot more than the 3s or 4s which I believe is all he would receive for each sheep converted into fertiliser. It seems, then, that the farmer would not lose money, but actually gain by selling at least some of his sheep to the butcher at a lower price than he now receives, instead of having them converted into fertiliser. Some of your readers could perhaps give me information regarding the values of one exportable carcass of mutton and one sheep reduced to fertiliser and the respective'costs involved in each. —I am, etc.. Cheaper Meat. May 12.