FROZEN MEAT MYSTERY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 14392, 3 September 1917, Page 4

FROZEN MEAT MYSTERY.

London, butchers complain that ,while frozen lamb is plentiful in better class districts- it is difficult to obtain in the poorer districts, particularly in the East End.

"(jso to the large shops in the West End,'' said a Barking butcher to a press representative "and you will see New .Zealand lamb on sale in On Friday I saw at least a dozen frozen lambs in the" shop. of a multiple farm. What we cannot fathom is why the cheaper iamb should go to the rich, and br denied to the poor. Take a- town like Southend, the population of which is largely composed of City men. All the principal butchers there sell, Xew Zealand lamb at varying prices. But you might try twenty shops in the Barking and East Ham districts without being able to buy any. What makes this the more surprising i« the fact that every square yard of cold storage in the country is iiow in the hands ' of the Government, without whose authority no colonial meat can he- released. The cold stores are full. That we know. Why they remain full instead of being ■emptied 'to -relieve -prices is a mystery. It seems ridiculous to keep the meat there, when we are told that there is no meat shortage. . If it is a fact that the meat is being kept mainly for the Army, why do not the Food Afinistry say so V The difficulty experienced by many ,'butcliprs in obtaining supplies of Australian and New Zealand lamb explains tho great difference "between the price at which it is bought in the colonies and the price; — varying from Is 4d to Is lOd a. pound— «t which it is retailed in; London-

"Most of the profit goes into my pocket," said an East J'Jnd butcher to a Daily Express representative. "T buy at lOiJd a, pound at the market and sell at Is 6d and Is 7d. Let me explain what this means. JLiused to buy .eighty New Zealand lambs a week. S T ow I am lucky if T obtain one. T bought one last weok, and sold it. at the same rate of profit I have mentioned. Let me have eighty again, and I sha'.l be only too «rlad to sell at 2d a pound profit. On the turnover I should do quite well."

A Daily Express representative. 'placed these facts before the Food Ministry, and was assured that the matter would receiva immediate consideration. "The price of meat," said* an official, "is receiving the Food Controller's constant consideration. Whether he will lower prices at som« cost to the Government, a* foreshadowed by Captain Hathurst, cannot yet be stated."

Mi* Holman, Premier of New South Wales, referred to meat prices in a speech at a food economy exhibition in London. He said : "After the Government hav«* arranged with care and foresight to brinor food from abroad, it is left to the tender mercies of the. trade in this country, and retailed at on enhanced price. That is not desiraible in the interests °f national economy."