RETAIL PRICE OF MEAT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 31 July 1920, Page 5

RETAIL PRICE OF MEAT.

. (.To the Editor). Sir,—ln reply to your leader of Saturday s Star, in which you have endeavoured to answer to my ietter there is nc mention of pc», so I take it you are quite satisfied tuat we have been giving a iair deal as regards that product. .As your original leader on pork was a gross misstatement, was not the public entitled to an acknowledgment m your Pages of yomr mistake? You have shelved this matter altogether in your second leader. You then try to brii>'» in arguments about the wholesale and retail prices of meat in the four large centres. Why ehbose these four towns? ISranakiis the district we live in. The cattle in different parts of New Zealand are valued on their breeding and con- • !?«" Hlgher Prices quoted for beasts in different localities are not necessarily an indication that the butcher is paying a higher price for His meat than the Taranaki buyer. AU butchers know that well-bred beef cattb are worth considerably more per 1001b s than the rejects or offspring of the dairy herds of Taranaki, and the cattle of Christchurch and Auckland that bring the biggest prices are-those of the beef breed. Therefore a bullock -»fr £26 i* tae above-mentioned towns—against your quotation of £21 in tar own district—would be your superior in weight and quality, and the difference is eaSly accounted f or . Furthermore, the- butchers in Auckland and Christchurcfa are msured against loss from diseased S+h^^^tanaer **** into a fund with the butcher; your local butcher stands this risk aW, unless the farmer is disposed to pay his share. Again in these cent?ei the catida are sold close- to. t&e abattoirs, which saves droving expenses and the time spent m miming round the country m search of suitable cattle. The by-products—tallow,, hides e tc — are disposed of in their ows centres, thus cutting out cartage- and freights which are no small item U local butehrflfc 1 I^ m? teS Of tße t^iness are right afe their doors. Ours have t* be carried from those centres. Has the writer <rf the leader compared the dif- ; ference paid in wages by the said local j batchers and those offered to men seek- i ing employment in the, quoted ceirtres? I Ih e butchers in T&ranaki are not as-1 sociated like most business concerns ' and tnat alone goes to show that the prices they sell at are w<*rked out on a practical basis. Therefore, a comparison should have been made between.' Uawera and other towos in this district: As regards cattle, not coining to fcae yard indicating; that butchers buy oheaper in the paddock, I take it that this points clearly that there is not a! surplus of prime cattle offering. The I farmer knows the> best market, and the fact that his cattle are not brought to the sales necessitates the buyer looking turn up, and in that case ensures a bargain being made at the highest market rate. Your statement re the fall in price of cattle-.. Why did tou not «n----quirfe what class of cattle this affecied, In conclusion^ you give the Auckland wholesale price for July. Kindly-quote the current retail prices. I think it uiay capsize the* flourishing finish you have attempted in your leader. JSW, Sir, comparing our position with tjba* of butchers in, say, Auckland: or Christchurch, you must come to the conclusion that.the butchers in those centres have distinct advantages, deaied! to u». There are mao^v points in business not understood hy the general puWic, hut when one knows the inner workings, these supposed anomalies become nonexistent. For instance, why should the Auckland man receive his "Herald, of eight pages, delivered at the house for I£<l. —I am, etc. M. BARRACLOUGH. [No reference whatever was made in our first or second leader to the price of pork. Qur contention is that for beef of poorer quality and costing the butcher less .per lOOlbs than in other places, we have to pay slightly higher prices^— first-class prices for second quality meat. Mr Barraclough speaks, of ' 'your quotation of £21 in our own district." All the figures quoted in the tables published in our leader were the Go\?,ernmeot Statistician's official -figures, bu% as exception seems to be taken to our choosing to quote city prices, perhaps those of other country towns will be of interest. We quote from the statistics, with Mr Barraclough's prices placed in tte taßle for comparison. The statistics quoted are the average retail prices in the towns named: Tai- Master- Grey- Danne- HaI . hape. fon. mouth, virke. wera '

We chose to qiiote the cifcy retail prices in our previous article because .the cost of living in the cities is expected to be higher than in the country. Yet comparison between Hawera and towns of similar situation does not improve Mr Barraclough's defence. We can well leave it to the public, who have had-both sides put before them, tejudge whether they are buying for their firstclass prices, first-class meat. Mr Barraclough admits that meat costs the Taranaki butcher less per IOOIbs tHan the cattle of Christohurcn and Auckland. Why then do consumers have to pay a higher retail price? Surely if other country towns such as we have quoted above can sell cheaper than Mr Barraclough there must be some better reason-than we can find in his letters. He will notice that the Auckland papers have raised, their prices to twopence because newsprint purchasable at £12 a ton before the war is costing between £70 and £98 to-day, according to the source of supply.—Ed.]

a. sirloin 84 Brisket.. ... ... 6j Prime rib3 ... 8 Flump steak ... 11 L'op-side . ... 8£ Stewing steak ... 84 kerned round ... 3£ Uorned roll ... 8i horned brisket ... 7i Sausages 7 d. 9 7 3 11 8 84 8 8 7 6i d. 94 1i 9 U 9 8 9 9 74 8 d. 8i H U 10 8 64 74 74 64 7 d. 10 S 9 12 9 8 9 9 9 8