MEAT RATIONING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 12, 15 January 1944, Page 5

MEAT RATIONING

LAST-MINUTE RUSH IN AUSTRALIA MINISTER’S STERN WARNING TO BUTCHERS CBy Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) Recd. 9.25 p.m. Sydney, Jan. 14. With Australian meat rationing beginning on Monday, a heavy rush by the public to purchase the last of the pre-coupon supplies is reported. People with refrigerators are believed to be accumulating home stores of mi3at to ease the first weeks of rationing. The strong opposition voiced by butchers to the meat rationing plan has prompted the Minister of Trade and Customs, Senator Keane, to warn that the Government would take over meat distribution if the butchers attempted to interfere with supplies to the public. The Minister had earlier charged the New South Wales Master Butchers’ Association with "organising a plot to defeat meat rationing.” H? also claimed that the association had made money available to a small political group to create public opposition.

An official of the association, in a heated denial of any conspiracy, said: “The Minister is perhaps looking for a scapegoat if the whole meat rationing scheme breaks down.” In Melbourne a rationing official was howled down and counted out when he attempted to explain the details of the rationing scheme to a meeting of 1200 butchers Members of Parliament report having received hundreds of letters demanding their opposition in Parliament to meat rationing. Many of th n letters are printed and are in “circular” form. However, some authoritative criticism has been voiced of the methods by which meat rationing will be imposed. The great majority of Australians accept the rationing as inevitable and are awaiting practical experience o f the scheme before criticising details. The principal point of the valid criticism has been the Government's failure to register customers with individual butchers. This registration of customers is part of Britain’s smooth-working and efficient rationing system. Because owners feared that under meat rationing their pets would have to go hungry, the. unprecedented destruction of dogs and cats is reported by lethal chanilw'rs throughout Australia.