MEAT SUBSIDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25798, 20 March 1945, Page 4

MEAT SUBSIDY

CLAIM FOR INCREASE RETAILERS PRESSING CASE (P.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Mar. 19. A strong claim for a larger subsidy for butchers was made by Mr W. S. Hughes (president) in his address at the opening of the annual Dominion conference of the New Zealand Master Butchers’ Industrial Association of Employers this morning: The subsidy offered by the Government, Mr Hughes said, had been considered by the executive and by members of the trade to be inadequate to meet the increased costs which butchers had been called upon to bear. While good progress had been made in the long and costly negotiations which had been going on with the assistance of Dr O. C. Mazengarb, finality had not been reached and the matter required careful watching. “ I am of the opinion that this association should not yield to any concessions offered by the Government,” Mr Hughes added. “We should show by a united front to the Government that there is a limit to the payments which the retailers can absorb by way of increased costs. It is surprising that the Government should take such an arbitrary attitude against the retailers when most sections of the community, including the members of Parliament, have had their incomes increased. I consider it is most unjust if we are expected to go on absorbing more and more increased costs into our diminishing profits.”