No Shortage Of Meat Stocks In Greymouth

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 March 1948, Page 2

No Shortage Of Meat Stocks In Greymouth

“If you have the coupons you can have a bullock,” said a Greymouth butcher to a Christchurch woman visitor, who inquired this morning whether it was possible for her to get some meat to take back to Christchurch, as she had been informed by telephone that her usual butcher in' the city had nothing to sell.

This conversation was a fair mdication of the situation regarding meat supplies in the two centres today. In Christchurch, as a result of the butchers’ decision to refrain from buying on the open market at Addington, fresh meat supplies are nearing exhaustion and it is expected that many Christchurch people will have a meatless week-end.

In Greymouth, however, the butchers have not followed the Christchurch lead and there was ample meat available today. The Greymouth butchers are just as concerned as those in Christchurch over the wholesale price situation, but their attitude to date has been one of “wait and see,” with the hope that the position will right itself in the near future.

High Market Prices The crux of the situation is that the retail prices of meat are controlled, under the price fixation regulatons, coupled with the quality stripe regulations, whereas the wholesale prices of sheep and cattle have been allowed to climb to record heights, regulated only by the law of supply and demand. The result, the butchers claim, has been that their businesses have become uneconomic, especially since the withdrawal of the meat subsidy. “If. the Government would let us have the real market price for our tallow, skins and hides it would be a big help,” said one Greymouth butcher today, in discussing the price situation. He pointed out that all three items were purchased from butchers at below true value. Another butcher said that Greymouth butchers, along with those in Canterbury and other parts of New Zealand were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the conference being held in Dunedin and were hopeful that the outcome of the discussions with the Government would be such as to restore the balance between cattle and sheep prices and the fixed retail prices for meat. “One Real Solution”

“There is only one real long-term solution to the problem—the time must come when butchers will buy all their meat ‘on the hook’,” said another butcher. He pointed out that, under the existing system a butcher knew what he was going to get for his meat, but he did not know from day to day how much he had to pay for it. Under such conditions, it was impossible to conduct business satisfactorily. “A grocer knows when he goes to the merchant just what he will be asked to pay for his stock,” he added. “Well, contrast his position with mine when I go to an open stock market. If I am urgently in need of sheep and cattle, and there are others there in the same position, I can- be forced to pay almost anything, yet the retail price is unalterable.”

Direct Purchases

One butcher conceded that the steps taken by the Christchurch butchers had had a certain amount of effect on the market on the West Coast. The butchers in Christchurch are buying, as fax’ as possible, direct from farmers at a fixed schedule of prices. This direct purchase method is more common on the West Coast, particularly in regard to beef and in some instances there has been _ a levelling off of values in. this district. Discussing the Addington market, one butcher said that West _ Coast butchers went there for a fair percentage of their sheep requirements, and for some time had been called upon to pay prices well in excess of the basic values on which the retail prices were fixed. ‘The butchers’ greatest enemy when it comes to the open market is the freezing companies,” he said. “They are such big concerns that they can afford to pay anything, if they really need the sheep, and the butcher has to compete with them.” It was considered by all of the butchers with whom the Evening Star made contact this morning that the drastic action taken by the Christchurch butchers had been forced upon them by their financial position and that some solution to the problem must be found. .