PRICE OF MEAT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 11 September 1945, Page 2

PRICE OF MEAT

* BUTCHERS' DISCUSSIONS URGENT MEETING OF EXECUTIVE Wellington, This Day. Butchers shops in Wellington and most other districts of New Zealand were closed yesterday os master butchers met to consider the problems of the trade. Chief complaint is that, though retail prices for meat are fixed by the Government, there- is no maximum price for stock. Under such conditions, butchers contend, they arc unable to make their business pay. Shops reopen to-day, but in North Auckland, according.to a Press Association message, no meat will be sold till a satisfactory arrangement is made. The action of the North Auckland executive in demanding of the Government tiiat the retail price of all meat be increased by 2d a pound was endorsed. It was also decided that, unless a settlement is reached by next Friday butchers throughout the Dominion will be asked to fall into line and offer no meat for sale. Recommendations of the branches, including North Auckland, will, as soon as they are received in Wellington, be considered at an urgent meeting of the executive of the New Zealand Master Butchers’ Association, which will decide what action should be taken.

There was a large attendance at the Wellington meeting yesterday and several resolutions were adopted. However. the secretary, Mr W. J. Mountjoy, who is also secretary of the New Zealand association, said last night that 'he was unable to disclose what they were. “Nothing quite as drastic as that,”.he said, when the North Auckland report was referred to him. Manawatu and southern Hawke’s Bay butchers, according to a Press Association message from Palmerston North, adopted a resolution urging that a buying Schedule for meat should be brought into operation. They stated that they were not prepared to stock frozen meats. It was decided to ask the Government to examine the cost of retailing and distributing meat at present, compared with the cost in 1939, and to pay the difference to butchers by way of subsidy. It was also decided that, if no additional subsidy were granted, shops should be closed till demands were met. Another motion asked that restrictions on the sale of pork be lifted. HASTINGS RECOMMENDATIONS Hastings, This Day. Recommendations to the New Zealand Master Butchers’ Association much in line with those carried in most other parts of the Dominion were agreed to by the Hawkes Bay Master Butchers when they considered trade problems yesterday. Shops reopened to-day and business proceeded normally. After a full day of deliberations the butchers decided they were not pre pared to sell frozen meat in their shops, nor were they in favour of buying at hookweights. The New Zealand executive is to be recommended to request the Government to examine the cost of retailing and distributing meat at present as compared with 1939 and to ask for the difference to be paid to butchers by way of an increased subsidy. In the event of no further increase in subsidy being made by the Government to the trade the meeting favoured the closing of shops until such time as the demands of the trade are met. —P.A.