LOW MEAT PRICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21281, 7 September 1932, Page 11

LOW MEAT PRICES

LESS THAN 50 YEARS AGO POOR RETURN TO GRAZIERS OVERHAUL OF COSTS NEEDED The 50th anniversary of the first shipment of New Zealand frozen meat to London occurred this year. While setting a starting point at which to judge tho immense progress* made by the frozen meat industry in New Zealand, it provides also a striking comparison of the recent tragic decline in meat prices. Fifty years ago New Zealand frozen mutton was selling in London for 6jd a lb. To-day the price obtained on the Homo market is only 3d. Lamb sold for a lb. 60 years ago; the last shipment from Auckland to London realised only 4£d, which is the lowest price ever received for any line of New Zealand lamb. Frozen beef has been depressed to as low a figure as 2^d.

The graziers' present difficulties may readily be appreciated when, from tho prices quoted, approximately a lb. is deducted for shipping and other charges. It means that the sheep and cattle owner is not receiving much above Id a lb. for his meat. A shipment of 1800 carcases of mutton arriving in London in the last few days from Auckland realised an average price of 215-16 d a lb., while another 1000 carcases obtained an average price of 3d. At the same time, the English cold stores are seriously congested and the new season's lamb is ready to leave Australia.

To look back upon the first shipment of New Zealand meat to London is to take a peep into the "good old days." The sailing ship Dunedin, after a passage of 98 days from Port Chalmers in 1882, landed 3521 frozen sheep, 449 frozen lambs and 22 frozen pigs, the consignment selling at prices ranging from to 6£d a lb. for mutton, and from 6£d to 7id for lamb. Even with freight at 2£d a lb., which wa& the average ruling rate in those days, these prices showed an excellent profit to tho New Zealand graziers. An Auckland produce merchant, commenting on the unfavourable disparity between the prices of to-day and those of more flourishing days, said tho graziers of the Auckland Province were greatly handicapped in facing the new level of prices by the excessive costs of farm improvements, which were much higher than in the South Island. Development work on Auckland lands had \een carried out largely during a time of peak prices, with the result that the farmers were suffering more severely than they should. The time had come for a general overhauling of costs, not only on the farm, but in the retail business. Meat which brought the farmers Id a lb. was being sold in the shops for 6d and Bd, because of the high costs of retail marketing, to which wages, expensive shop buildings and an army of Government inspectors were contributing factors. An Auckland grazier caustically summed up the present price position yesterday by saving: ''l have just sold 150 head of cattle, and at the price I received it would have been cheaper to have purchased a gun and paid a man wages to go out and shoot them. It is financially impossible to carry on at such prices."