NO MEAT TO SELL

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1946, Page 6

NO MEAT TO SELL

■ ■<s> BUTCHER’S SHOP CLOSED FOR PERIOD RATIONING POSITION (P.A.) AUCKLAND, July 31. For the first time in Auckland a butcher’s shop has closed owing to, according to its own notice, “the stoppage of all wholesale supplies of rationed meat temporarily by the Food Controller.” The shop will reopen on August 5. / According to the Food Controller, Mr. A. J. Costelloe, who was interviewed by telephone this morning, the situation is not new. He said that butchers in Wellington, Christchurch, and Invercargill had already had this experience, the reason being that the butchers had apparently omitted to collect coupons from customers and therefore did not have sufficient coupons to entitle them to collect their next quota of meat. Mr. Costelloe added that butchers were required to lodge their coupons at trading banks each week. These were checked regularly by his department, and, unless there were sufficient coupons to substantiate their purchases, butchers automatically put themselves out of business. He emphasised that his department did not close the shops down. The responsibility rested entirely with the butchers, who, however, could not be put out of business indefinitely and it might be that his department would write off some of the coupons.