THE HIGH PRICE OF MEAT AND FOOD PROSPECTS IN ENGLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2209, 20 January 1868, Page 3

THE HIGH PRICE OF MEAT AND FOOD PROSPECTS IN ENGLAND.

(Times, Oct. 23.) It is really time that householders should look to their butchers' bills, and devise some measures in their own defence. Of course it seems absurd at first sight to talk about " monopoly," when trade is open and anybody may sell meat who pleases, and wherever he thinks fit. But we just beg the reader's attention to a few authentic figures compared with prices actually current. Meat is now lOd a pound, and he is a lucky man who can get chops or steaks even at a shilling. When we say this is the current charge we speak of the dealings of ordinary householders in this city and in most midland and southern towns. In other cases the charge is strongly contrasted, and'it is this very difference which gives the subject its importance. If meat everywhere and to all customers cost lOd a pound, there would be at least an antecedent presumption that this was a fair price for it; but this is not the fact. In the north of England the finest joints of the finest mutton were selling last week at 7d and 7£d a pound; for inferior joints or middling qualities theprice ranged from 4|d to 6d. A correspondent has written to us with an account of the tenders sent into certain Unions for the supply of meat during the ensuing season. One Union got "good beef" at s£d a pound. Another got " thick and thin flanks, briskets, and rounds of good ox beef free from bone " at 6s lid per 141b, or a fraction under 6d a pound, A third got "good English wether mutton, consisting of legs and shoulders," at 6d to 6|d a pound. Now, with this evidence before him, we think every father of a family has a right to ask in pretty peremptory terms why he is charged lOd, Is, or Is 2d for what can be sold at just half the price.

As far, too, as we have any information on the subject, the whole sale prices of meat entirely support the lower rate of charge. Cattle have fallen surprisingly in value. " The wholesale fat sheep markets," said a report last Saturday, " have not been so depressed for several years, and so far from rising, they have a tendency to get lower. Beasts are a little firmer, but excellent beef may be purchased at very moderate prices in all the retail markets." In the Metropolitan Cattle Market on Monday the best quality of beef did not recover 4d in the 81b from the decided fall of Thursday last, but in all specimens short of the very best there was again a " great reduction." With mutton it was much the same. Very prime meat could be quoted a little "firmer," but any below this standard was " difficult to sell" at the late prices, and the trade generally was " heavy." No' wonder, then, that in markets where there is no artificial scarcity, or to customers who know how to get their rights, good beef and mutton can be had at 6d or 7d a pound, Is all this the fault of the butchers ? That would be hard to say, for they, of course, can ask what price they like, and if the buyer chooses to give it, nobody can well blamo the seller. The truth is, we are all either too indifferent or busy to look into the matter, or to support our complaints by auy effective action. People possessed of competence don't much care whether their monthly bills are so much more or less, while people to whom 15s or £1 a week may be a serious, object are too hard tft work to look after the excess or to insist upon the saving. The trade, in fact, ib in the handa of the sellers. This, to a political economist, may seem very absurd,, perhaps even impossible; but it is a fact never-

theless; In' fish' ■it has been the Case for years. The' retail'dealers have succeeded in making fish a- luxury Go to Billingsgate, and you may buy for Is what you must pay 3s for at the fishmonger's shop. There is not the least doubt in the world about this. Anybody may ascertain it by experiment any morning in the week. The price of wheat governs the price of flour, and, broadly speaking, the price of bread.:' We know that when corn rises bread mus'fc rise, and that when the market uinks bread will fall. The fact, too, corresponds with the calculation. Millers and bakers take toll in passing, no doubt; but still, as a rule, the loaf is cheap when wheat.is low, and any distinct fall iu the' cornmarket brings bread down at once, if not quite in due proportion, at any rate to somo extent and without delay. But it now seems as if the price of b' a ef and mutton were to be maintained quite independently of the price of oxen and sheep. We believe we are within the mark in saying that a fat sheep fit for the butcher is not worth at' this minute much more than half what it was worth this time last year. What has been the effect of this fall on the price of mutton? Is mutton 50 per cent cheaper than it was, or 20 per cent, or 10 per cent ? Is it cheaper by even one halfpenny a pound than in October, 1866? What is the use, then, of importing beasts to fill the cattle-market, if between the cattlemarket and the butcher there is to be as broad a gulf as between Billingsgate and the fishmonger ? What, we ask once more, is the good of making sheep cheap if mutton is to remain dear ? Before we appeal to Australia we should look at home. Let us understand how it is that mutton can be 6d. a pound to one customer and Is a pound to another; or Is a pound in London, while it is"6d in Lancashire, The very best of beef was actually to be had for 7d a pound in Liverpool market on Monday morning; the very best of mutton fetched less. Are we to be told that the south of England is shut off from the north of England as completely as Orissafrom Bengal ? Are we to have a glut on one side and a famine on the other side of theHumber?....

One of our correspondents yesterday said a good word for Australian beef, and we are glad to think it deserved the praise. To those markets we must go, beyond a doubt, It is hard enough, as we noiv see, to get cheap meat even when meat ought to be cheap, but occasionally even sheep and oxen must be dear. Besides this we may reckon, and ought to reckon, on an increase of consumption and extension of the demand. "We should like to see the business of this supply taken largely and effectually in hand. For. every sheep standing in the Metropolitan Cattle-market on a Monday morning, Australia could with the greatest ease send us two, and at about 6s a carcase as bought on the spot. • What price per pound this meat ought to fetch after curing and carriage we cannot say, but it must come by the shipload, like coal or corn, if ifc is to act effectually upon the market. It is of no use importing a few tins as curiosities. Australian and English meat should lie side by side on every stall, and if eighteen butchers in Paris have already consented to sell horse, we may expect that our own butchers will make up their minds in the end to deal in preserved beef and mutton. First of all, however, we have our home tariff to rectify, and, after the figures we have placed before the public, a reform, we should hope, cannot be long delayed.