HOME MARKETS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 February 1927, Page 3

HOME MARKETS.

LONDON’S PR'E-EMINKXCII STRESSED.

AUCKLAND, Jan. 28. Captain A. W. Pearce, representative in Australia and Now Zealand for the Port of London Authority, is visiting Auckland and will return to Sydney by ' - y> the Niagara, next week. In an interview he said that the • statement that butter brought higher prices at outports than in London was misleading. The difference in prices •was accounted for by reason of the fact that the prices quoted at outports were those of the wholesale trade, which bought from importers, whereas the prices in London were those paid by importers. If London wholesalers’ prices were quoted it would mean an addition of 4s (id a cwf to importers’ prices. Captain Pearse also contended that in giving a comparison of prices obtained for meat shipped through outports and London it was not always stated whether the prices were off the hooks rr’~ or whether they were the prices ob- / tained by importers from salesmen. Tho fair method will bo to quote Government figures lor all ports and these, he said, would show that London obtained the best prices for prime meat. Storage charges in London for meat amounted to less than id per lb for the first month, while charges for subsequent months were on a sliding scale and therefore amounted to much less. However, most of the meat which was imported into London never went into store at all but passed direct into consumption, being dispatched over the Authority’s quays at the wharfage rate of 9s 3d a ton plus 2s a! ton port rate. • Taking this moderate charge into a< - N count Captain Pearse said it would be folly for the New Zealand Meat Boaid { to go to the expense of erecting co d * storage buildings. which probably / would become very expensive to mn and might become a white elephant (K