THE MEAT MARKET.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12240, 14 June 1909, Page 5

THE MEAT MARKET.

A^MANCHESf ER BUTCHER INTER- :■■•;■■, VIEWED.

-'.(Per-Press, Association)

WELLINGTON, June 13. Mr A, A. Openshaw, a Manchester butcher in a large wholesale and retail way, arrived by the.Wakanui yesterday. His. operations included Bolibon and other large Lancashire industrial centred, and he was therefor©', .well qualified to speak on the. slump in the New. Zea^ land meat trade. To a " Post" reporter ho said the low prices were directly attributable tp three causes:—(l)' Cutting arid Argentine competition,. £2) excessive supplies, and (3) the restricted purchasing' power of the public. " We, on the west coast of England, must have' meat cheap,*' he said. "Ifit is not cheap w,e fcamiot look at it. New Zealand has a great vogue in London. It is very fine, and is sometimes, but not so often as.you might believe, subtituted for prime Home-grown lamb. Many people are unable to tell "the difference. Now, with -regard to Argentine competition, Swift, the big American Meat Trust people,-'are in there. They are cutting- prices" and pushing the meat for- all its-1 worth;, selling it very cheap, grading it well and packing it in firstclass order. Jft has badly hit the Australian mutton and lamb and is. as a matter of fact,^Sttperior^but New Zealand lamb still leads. The mutton is too good, arid to heavy for our West Coast trade." We want a leaner sheep. Just before coming' away I bought Australian, lamb at 3^d for 301bs, the average, weights. There is A very big supply of British (home raised) sheep and lambs coming right on top of heavy supplies from Argentine and New Zealand and Australia,, and then the people have not tlie.money to buy, cheap as the meat is.. What do they eat when they go off meat? Fish mostly. That is cheap when they; can-get it. To say that the cheese CQnsufnption increases as a substitute for "meat is an absurdity on the fact of it. Cheese is dearer than meat w- ™ s _ubstitute- As for the retailer. Well, he can do very well with really ftne second-grade Argentine wethers at 2|d. That is what I bought at, but of j course he wants the turnover. It is1 not there. At-present things are still extremely dull throughout.. the United Kingdom.1 A great revival of trade in tlie liear'future M-as not apparent when 1 left London." . - r