NO FAMINE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17877, 24 August 1918, Page 8

NO FAMINE.

MEAT-SUPPLIES IN SYDNEY. [From Our Correspondent J !•',;'■.■'' SYDNEY, August 14. ,' If I had taken' the advice of thfl' § newspapers lately I would have antioi- . pated a famine of proteids and invested largely in hams and tinned meats. If I believed my morning journal or regarded the evening sheet seriously: I would now be starving through lack of * beet and mutton and bewailing over meatless meals, the absence of nutriment in the midst of plenty. But abstention from patronising the ham market and refusal to be persuaded that lam famine-stricken has been fol- jj lowed by no serious consequences. Tho papers tell me that there, is a frightful shortage of meat—that shops are being shut—that gaunt citizens ' are rushing about the distant suburbs looking vainly for chops. Yet strango to say the few butchers' shops I daily pass are plentifully decorated with '■*■ carcases, and the customary joint iur-. nishes the domestio table. ' It is _all very strange to have the papers telling us- that we are famishing and yet ,t 6 have daily evidence that_ the allegation is without justification. _ There; is a fearful row going on in print about a meat famine in consequence of price fixing, but there are certainly many thousands of people ready to swear that the whole thing is mere rumour. While on one side there are reported to be butchers who cannot get meat, the biggest establishment in the city proclaims its readiness to supply as many people as choose to soino and buy. • One is naturally, a little bewildered. NORMAL YARDINGS. The facts seem to be that the unquestioned decline ,in the number of* animals coming into the saleyards has ; led to some of the men doing business in the poorer parts of the city; not getting' full supplies. They are pinned down to the fixed cash price. On the jtheiv hand, retailers carrying on an order and delivery business or a cash trade in the more affluent districts are able to get their trade wants satisfied * mainly because they can outbid the other trader. The order and delivery ; butcher can laugh at the cash price schedule and charge what he .lists. And at the moment he lists a very sub- ; slantial percentage over the schedule rates. The experiment of price fixing in reference to meat has been rather provocative of disturbance, but there are indications of things soon settling down. Though some of the wholesale # dealers may bo trying to restrict sup- - plies the idea of a 'wide-spread conspiracy being at work among the graziers will not stand examination. Moreover, the cause of the reported shortage can be found in the recent copious rains. ' These interrupted «the trade rather seriously. But already there is evidence of this interruption being no longer a factor. The entries-of both . beef and mutton for to-morrow's sales at Homebush are practically Back, to normal. It is simply absurd to suppose that holders of fat stock would , iindit profitable to hold their animaia back from sale. There is little r00m,./ for doubt that the scaremongers have f. overdone their sensationalism, and that ; we-are near the end of the prevailing excitement. But the shortage of putter is very real, and a new terror is added to life'by the announcement that cheese is getting scarcer every day, and that the onion supply is on tha point of exhaustion. : But for the present the shadow of the great meat hangs heavily over the land.