MUTTON USED TO MAKE SOAP

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160711, 26 July 1920, Page 7

MUTTON USED TO MAKE SOAP

Mutton, which the British public might have had at sixpence a pound, will soon be on the market at twice that price—as soap, according to the London Evening News. That paper says it ha*s received the startling* inioimation that thousands of carcases of mutton are being sent to soap-makers from the London store-houses. Hus is the meat which has become unfit for' human food as a result of the Govern* ment’s food muddle. Officials at tho docks are now engaged in sorting out the mutton at present in store and in the ships waiting to unload. After putting off for months and keeping the price of mutton up iu spite of the huge quantities in store here and abroad, the authorities have at last found themselves forced to dispose of largo quantities of what was once good food for soap-making. Some of it has gone had in the stores, and some on tho voyage to England. These facts were given to an Evening News’ representative by a prominent wholesale sheep salesman in Smithfield market, who desired that his name should not be disclosed. He estimated that for some time past carcases had been going from the London docks and store-houses to the soapboilers at the rate of over 10,000 a week. The manufacturers are paying the Government be tween £lO and £2O a ton for ” the carcases—about lid or 3d a pound. “The present situation,” said the salesman, “is simply an aftermath of the war; the Government should have cut their losses and put the cost on the war bill. One of the chief causes of tho deterioration of the mutton stocks is tho method of storing. The meat was not put away for the Government as it would have been for private owners. The same remark applies to the method of taking out of store. Owing to labour shortage at one time, and the absence of proper supervision on the part of the Government, it usually happened that the last carcases put into store were the first out —because they were easier to get at. Some of the meat now coming out has been in store for four years; a large proportion is two years old. In ray opinion the price of mutton ought to have been reduced to sixpence per pound a long time ago, damaged carcases should have been sent to the soap-mak-ers, and then wc could have made a fresh start under private ownership. Instead of doing this the Government has used every effort to holster up the price of mutton to the Continent and America, and it is even diverting supplies from New Zealand to other countries in order to keep up prices here. Three or four weeks ago the whole of the Patagonian supplies were bought up by the Government. This mutton could have been sold here at 7’d a pound, and the trade is convinced that the authorities have bought Up these stocks in order to prevent competition.” The mutton muddle has a counter-part in the bacon muddle. Huge supplies also of bad bacon are being sent to the soap-makers. According to the Home and Foreign Produce Exchange, Ltd., thousands .of boxes (weighing four to the ton) have been sold by authority of the Food Ministry to soap-boilers and others at a loss of about £l6O per ton. Thousands have been sold for the Continent at a loss varying from £BO to £l4O per ton. Many hundreds of tons are waiting for the soap-makers when they can take them. There are thousands of tons yet to be sold, certainly at a loss of £SO per ton.