THE LOCAL MEAT SUPPLIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15466, 10 March 1921, Page 5

THE LOCAL MEAT SUPPLIES.

MASTER BUTCHERS? REPLY TO STATEMENTS. The statements made by members of the Borough Council on Monday evening durum the discussion on the correspondence 0 from the Health Inspector, have aroused feeling among the master butchers of the district; who declare that the statements made by the Inspector, and also by certain of The councillors, arc decidedly unfaif. In conversation' with a reporter today, a prominent member of the Master Butchers’ Association of Gisborne stated that as a Result of the feeling that has been engendered, the association has decided that the old price list shall be reverted to in the meantime, and that the schedule announced the other day, by which- the prices of meat throughout the. scale were reduced by about a penny per pound, will not. come into operation. In order to satisfy the public upon the question of the allegedly enormous profits accruing to the butchers at the present prices of meat-, it has also been decided to request the Board of Trade to dispatch a Prices Investigation Tribunal to Gisbornb, to declare a new "schedule, based upon local conditions and accurate data. The master butchers declare themselves prepared to stand by the decision of the tribunal, and do not. for that matter, anticipate any change ill. "the prices at, prpsent rilling, provided, of course, that, no material change occurs in the conditions under which they are working. In order to illustrate: the views of the master butchers, that, the:present scale of -retail prices is not. excessive,, our’informant. produced a blank copy of a schedule forwarded, monthly by the Board of Trade, fob completion by the individual butchering firms. The information desired by the. Board constituted nothing less than a statement of the profit and loss of tho firm’s operations, and a schedule ,pf the comparative results from buying and selling,. with details of the average "price/,,paid for beef and mutton during the past, three months, the'source of supply, the average weight per beast purchased, the cost of* droving, slaughtering, and delivery to the shop (based on the weights of the weekly output), the expenses of cool storage, and. lastly, a list of the prices charged in the sale of the meat to.the public. . On this information, supplied every month, the Board of Trade, our representative was informed, based any do cision regarding the fairness of the retail prices, and the fact that the butchers have not heen called upon to make any changes is reasonable proof, it is claimed, that the , Board looks upon the. charges as.reasonable. ' , Speaking oh the point raised recently regarding the reduction of prices else where while prices' remain the same in Gisborne, the local butchers hold that local conditions entirely govern the prices, and these differ considerably from those obtaining elsewhere. RE-OPENING OF THE ABATTOIRS. The discussion regarding the re-open ing of the municipal abattoirs is another subject, upon which the local butchers feel very, strongly. In the first place, they refute "the statement that the abattoirs are a charge upon tin general public—a white elephant, as the establishment has been termed. The fact, as stated 'to our representative, is that the butchers are paying for the interest and sinking fund upon the cost of their erection, so that the publit does not bear the cost. Further) it was stated that the present methods employed lor the killing of the meat, by sending it to the freezing works, costs •.ess per head than did. the pre-war killing by the ' butchers themselves at the abattoirs. Some of the conditions affect ing the cost of killing at the abattoirs were the distance from town, which necessitated special arrangements for delivery to the shops, and the losses incurred through decay of meat, which, nir informant jleclnred, were greater hail those now met by loCaUbutcliers. The abattoir system had, and still an pears to have, faults upqfi s*hich grea 1 -tress is laid by - the One oi .hese was the accommodation, which h very scant. Some of the councillors, tin reporter was told, imagine that there is provision at the municipal abattoirs for cool storage. This is not the case, and what is more, the killing and hanging are all done on the one floor, villiout even a partition between tho killing hoard arid the hooks, Tho fly nuisance which is fought to the best of the butch ers’ ability, is, however, greatly aggravated by the situation of the building, between the sanitary depot and a gifi factory. ‘‘l have seen,” our informant declared, “carcases hanging on the hooks,, absolutely covered with flies, and some of tho meat killed was maggoty before it could be^removed.” STATEMENT BY MASTER BUTCHERS’ ASSOCIATION. A fully-attended meeting of the Mas ter Butchers’ Association was held ves evday afternoon, and in conversation with a Herald representative to-day tin eeretury, Mr. W. IT, Weslhrooke, stated that, it was unanimously decided that fio reduction should be made in the iriee of meat until an inquiry had beer. made by the Prices Investigation Tribu ini. The reasons given were as follows : , - /’;= .. .. 1. The Borough . Council has decided o re-.open the abattoirs, which will increase the pride of killing 100 per cent. 2. To reduce (lie pried of meat after he charges of profiteering made by some* of the Borough Councillors and the gem anal and hostile attitude adopted, to,'ether with the request to the Prices Investigation Tribunal, for an .inquiry, vould give the public the impression hat the reduction .was made .for "The impose- of avoiding an investigation, .vliereas the fact is an inquiry would he welcomed by every member of the Association. Amongst other points which, would ho elucidated by an inquiry would be the misleading impressions drawn from reports of stock sale prices. Often fats are quoted as having been sold at very'low price'. Whilst tlu-sc igures are quite correct, the public forms, the impression that butchers re 1 heir meat at a very low-price, whereas the fact is that cattle and sheep are often sold in the fat phis when they are really not fats at all, and could not be made fit for killing the same season.