PROSECUTIONS OF BUTCHERS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24899, 12 June 1946, Page 8

PROSECUTIONS OF BUTCHERS

MEAT RATIONING CASES FURTHER SUBMISSIONS BY COUNSEL (PA.) WELLINGTON, June 11. "Political hooey, political eyewash, and political considerations” were alleged by Dr O. C. Mazengarb in defending butchers on charges of breaches under the rationing regulations and price orders, which wei'e continued in the Magistrate’s Court Wellington, to-day. The hearing, which was before Mr W. F. Stilwell, S.M., was not completed and will be continued tomorrow afternoon. Dr. Mazengarb said fbat as a result of the operations of butchers, it was alleged that the rationing scheme for meat had been frustrated, but the Minister (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) knew full well that it was the permit system which had resulted im the conf,u n ?, ption of a larger amount of meat in Wellington than before the introduction of rationing. . " The ,. P ros ecuticns are just political hooey, he said. "My letter was written to the Minister, but he has replied in the morning paper that he preferred these prosecutions to continue. If the Minister and the Government are sincere in their efforts to save meat for Great Britain they would hear what the butchers fave V* s . a 7* and ex amine the position. Why should the Minister strain at a gnat and swallow a camel?’’ The Magistrate: This Court is not concerned with the political aspect of the matter. Dr. Mazengarb: Butchers are being made to bear the iniquities of the department. This is just political eyewash. The Magistrate: My task is difficult enough without going into the political issue.

We re not saving meat for Gbeat Britain; we’re consuming more meat today than before rationing.” said Dr. Mazengarb, reading from a trade bulletin. ‘The housewife is rationed, but a leakage is occurring through supplies under permits to manufacturers, hotels, restaurants, Government and local authority contracts, shipping companies, agents and others who manage to get the ‘authority to acquire’ from the controller.” Dr. Mazengarb said the Government was Using these prosecutions to make it appear that the rationing of meat was being frustrated by the butchers.

Consumption Figures “This is the most important part of the case for the defence,” said Dr, Mazengarb, when cross-examining Murdo Morrison McDonald, manager of the abattoir at Kaiwarra, in answer to a question by the Magistrate. McDonald said 28,000 more carcases of Sheep and lamb had gone into consumption in Wellington and 350 more carcases of beef in the year 1946 than for the year 1939-40, leaving out the war years because of the extra consumption through extra temporary population. These figures amounted to 1,598,0001 b more mutton and 1,858,2501 b more beef than in the period before rationing was instituted. Angus Duncan, an employee of Walter Joseph Barrett, a butcher, of Paramata, was charged with supplying meat to a consumer other than against the surrender or cancellation of coupons. Barrett was charged with aiding him in the commission of the offence.

After Keith Fergusson Parker, an inspector of rationing, had given evidence. Dr. Mazengarb said that as for the fact that the meat was sold, and the appropriate. number of coupons . not tendered, there could be no doubt, but it was hotly contested that the shopman had a fair opportunity of seeing the coupons before the inspector left the shop. This was an instance of obtaining meat by a trick. He asked the Court not to enter a conviction when trickery .of this sort was resorted to. Barrett, in evidence, said it had been necessary often to rely on the honesty of the customer without great inconvenience to the public. To Mr W. R. Birks, for the Food Controller. the witness said it had always been his practice to rely on the customer. He had never been let down. The Magistrate: You don’t suggest that this - practice is. authorised. It has just grown up? The witness: Yes. “I ought to say here and now that counsel’s suggestion about a trick is not Justified,” said the Magistrate in enterng a conviction against each defendant, and reserving his decision on the penalty. Hugh Douglas, a butcher, of 50 Kent terrace, appeared on two charges, one of supplying meat not in accordance with the number of coupons tendered, and one under the Price Tribunal regulations. Convictions were entered and the Magistrate reserved hir decison on the penalty. i Dr. Mazengarb, after evidence had been heard, said he could not carry the matter further than to say that butchers had to suffer by a price order which had been fixed by political considerations •Which enabled the cost of living statistics to be kept down. •

MINISTER DOES NOT PROPOSE TO INTERVENE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, June 11. “I am not interfering or attempting to interfere with the course of the law,” said the Minister of Industries, and Commerce (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan), commenting on the suggestion made by Dr. O. C. Mazengarb in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday that the prosecution of butchers for infringement of ration coupon regulations should be discontinued or adjourned, and that some independent person should be appointed to consider suggestions for meeting the coupon difficulties.