BEEF PRICE WAR

Evening Star, Issue 25045, 11 December 1943, Page 4

BEEF PRICE WAR

BUTCHERS AGAIN INDICT REGULATIONS NO CHECK ON WHOLESALE PRICES (P.A.) ' WELLINGTON, Dec. 10. . " Butchers throughout the Dominion are still very restive over the position in which they are iplaced through being 'told by the Government that they must sell beef for less than they pay tor it," said Mr T. W. Stephenson, president of the New Zealand Master Butchers' Association, to-day. "A few days ago," he said, "Mr Sullivan, as Minister of Industries and Commerce, warned the butchers that they would bo committing a breach of the law if they failed to sell beef at the fixed prices, even though by so doing they would be selling at less than cost price. This is a startling attitude for the Minister to take up. He appears to justify such an absurdity by saying that the butchers must ' judge the results over a whole year's trading.' " Either the Minister is deliberately trying to bluff the public or he does not know the regulations for which he is responsible. ]t is clearly laid down in Price Order No. 98 that the retail prices of beef are fixed on the assumip-' tion that the wholesale price of beef is 36s per 1001 b, but the order goes on to state that if.the wholesale price falls the retail price must be correspondingly reduced. There is no provision for an increase in the retail price when the wholesale price rises auove the basic price. In order to got beef butchers have been compelled to ipay up to 66s to 71s ,per 1001 b, nearly double the wholesale price on which the retail prices were fixed. l( The Government does not try to stabilise wholesale prices,"" Mr Stephenson said, " but it expects the butchers to buy and sell at a loss. The situation is Gilbertian. For a bureaucracy to require the butchers to sell meat at less than they pay for it is quite contrary to all the principles of natural justice. "Mr Sullivan appears to have reached the conclusion that his department cannot keep the wholesale prices down, and he therefore has the brainy idea that the butchers should either sell at a loss or conspire with one another against the wholesalers by forming: some. sort of buying ring,' as if the butchers can do what the Government finds it cannot cU- The public may rest assured that the butchers are acting quite fairly to the consumers. It is not their fault .that the wholesale prices have been allowed to rise. It is well known that they have been disregarding the price order, but they do not sell at unfair prices." Mr Sullivan, commenting on the statement, said again that any butcher found breaking the meat Price Order. Would be prosecuted. Every butcher was aware of the limits within which he could sell, and if lie was' prepared to buy beyond those limits he must absorb the consequent losses. Mr Stephenson's description of the wholesale prices of beef as laid down iii the Price Order and on which the butchers' retail prices were based w?« grossly misleading, Mr Sullivan »said. In stating that the basic wholesale price was 36s per 1001 b Mr Stephenson was either not aware of. the provisions regarding seasonal rises in the basic wholesale price, or was attempting to create a false impression. Seasonal rises in the retail prices were stipulated and gave the following schedule of basic wholesale prices: North Island—October 1 to August 19, 365; August 20 to September 30, 40s. South Island : January 1 to June 30, 365; July 1 to July 31, 40s; August 1 to August 19, 445; August 20 to November 30, 48s'; December 1 to December 31, 445. The figures of GGs to 71s quoted by Mr Stephenson must be related to the correct basic wholesale price of 48s, Mr Sullivan added, as this rate was applicable in the South Island when the butchers were paying the prices mentioned. ' . ' ■ '