THE FROZEN MEAT COMPANY AND PRICES OF MEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7402, 10 August 1885, Page 3

THE FROZEN MEAT COMPANY AND PRICES OF MEAT.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Probably the letter from the Secretary of the Batchers' Association to the Chairman of the Farmers' Co-operative Association was not intended for publication, otherwise will the Secretary of the Butchers' Association be good enough to explain why the public has had no benefit from the alleged selling by the Freezing Company of meat at prices less, it is stated, than the cattle can be produced ? I have been at the trouble to enquire what are the present selling prices at the wholesale department of the Freezing Company, and I find that prime roasting beef is quoted at 3d to 5Jd, prime mutton at 2£d. Now, sir, under the dead moat market system of the Company, the old excuses of the butcher as to waste, loss from keeping, &0., are done away with, as the retailer can send down and purchase just what he wants for the day's consumption, all expense of killing, &c., being saved. Here appears a large margin. _ Will the Secretary to the Butchers' Association explain, as the public and the farmer should not be led astray by a false issue, as to where the profits are going ? Besides, surely there is something odd when the Secretary of a retail association finds fault with the low wholesale price of the article be deals in. is it not rather that the Company's operations tend towards free trade in meat, and thereby bring the producer and consumer closer together, and squeezes the middle man.— am, &c., PATERFAMILIAS.