NEW ZEALAND MEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16037, 14 August 1916, Page 9

NEW ZEALAND MEAT.

PROFITS ON SURPLUS.

OFFICIAL ATTITUDE AT HOME.

COSTS OF HANDLING.

HIGHER PRICES DEPRECATED.

The question of profits on New Zealand meat sold in the London market is the subject of a telegram received by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. W. F. Massey, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. A. Bonar Law. It states that the conditions do not justify any increase in the prices now paid by the Board of Trade for New Zealand meat.

The contents of the telegram are as follows : —" The Board of Trade points out that many hundreds of retail butchers have had to close their shops, and the profits of the retail trade, except in certain favoured places, are probably less on an average than before the war. The costs of handling meat have risen enormously. There are no means of fixing the price of cattle sold by farmers here in small quantities or compelling foreign companies to bring meat here. " Though the profits made on Argentine mutton and lamb in the spring were high, they related to a comparatively small portion of the meat.

" No American companies act as selling agents, and as distributors can purchase only on the same terms as everyone else, it is impossible for them to exercise any control over the price of New Zealand mutton or lamb.

" The Board of Trade deprecates raising prices, and urges that its action has greatly assisted the ex£-ainsion of the New Zealand meat trade."