THE PRICE OF MEAT IN SYDENHAM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7862, 18 May 1886, Page 6

THE PRICE OF MEAT IN SYDENHAM.

TO THE EDITOR. ;a IR> —Kindly allow me a small space in your widely circulated journal to call attention to the enormous prices which we have to pay for our meat in the Model Borough that is, in comparison to the prices ruling in the city. On looking over the commercial reports for the last two or three months, and seeing the ridiculously small figure at which mutton, more especially, has been sold, one would naturally expect.that the people would be benefited, and that our butchers would be content with, reaping I

30 or 40 per, cent on their sales, instead of, as at present, charging about three times as much on this class’of food as the town vendors. Anyone who cares to take the trouble to compare prices in town with those in Sydenham will find that meat marked I£d in the former is charged 4d or 5d in the latter place, nor is the meat inferior; and in some instances, by taking a large quantity, say forty or fifty pounds weight, the cost per lb is a trifle under Id. In beef there is not such a great difference, but even for this article we have to pay at the very least 50 per cent more than we should were we to journey to town. Being a working man’s borough, you would think that the working man would be allowed to participate a trifle in the good times our butchers are having by being asked to pay less than formerly, and then we could not grumble at a rise in prices as meat got higher. But I certainly fail to see why we, whose money is so hard earned, should have to pay so extortionate a price. It would well repay a firm from the city to start a branch here—in a central position —at the prices ruling in town. As it is, a great many often take a trip into the city and purchase their week’s supply; but in bad weather this is hardly possible, and then we are preyed upon. Being a working man with a large family, and, like a good many more, earning but little to support them, the price of provisions is no small matter for study, every penny saved being a consideration. Hoping to see a “ cheap meat shop ” in the centre of Sydenham,—l am, &c., MUTTON. Sydenham, May 15.