WELLINGTON BUTCHERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 923, 16 September 1910, Page 4

WELLINGTON BUTCHERS.

A GLOOMY PROGNOSTICATION. The retail butchers of Wellington have apparently no -present hope ,of escape from the difficulties, briefly described, in recent issues, of The Dominion. Inquiries conducted . yesterday elicited the information that the idea .of holding a conference of master butchers to discuss the question of prices had been abandoned. It. appears that, there are about half a dozen retail butchers, including the owners of 6ome of'the largest shops in Wellington, who absolutely decline, to participate in common action with a view to securing ah advance in; retail prices. This stand . they take, .despite the assertions that present pricos, are unremunerative, and involve selling ata loss. Some of the bigger trading butchers were accused in the prosperous days of eighteen months ago of forming a combine , or ring to: control: the trade. They now take the view that the.men who brought down prices when times .'were good must make the . best of the, present unsatisfactory condition. .This is the position, .as stated ,by a wellknown butcher yesterday to a reporter. He added that things, . continuing on their present lines v would inevitably culminate in a considerable number of. small traders being .compelled to forsake the trade. They had to settle with .their-sunpliers once a week, ot by daily payments if their financial stability wero' at all suspected. This they could not continue to do in the existing state of trade, and the result, he foretold, was only a matter of time..