The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1868.

Dunstan Times, Issue 309, 27 March 1868, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1868.

Beneath the Utile of Men ENTIRELY JUSTi the pen is Mightier than the SWORD.

The Dunedin papers have taken up the cudgels against the butchers, and very naturally inquire how it is that the retail price of meat is so utterly disproportionate 'to its cost by the carcase? If the people of Dunedin find cause for comp'aint, what should be said by the residents on the goldfields, where a much higher price is paid, and it is actually grown at their very doors ! In this latter case there is no driving to a mar et required, -no commissions for selling, nor any of those charges incidental to the transfer of stock from the breeder to the butcher as is the case where the market in distant from the source of supply. The matter of clear meat is a very perplexing affair. With our present habits of living meat is one of the essentials of life ; in fact, we cannot do without a large consumption of that indispensable article— it is, as it were, necessary to our being Upon numerous occasions we have-called att ntion to the fact that the prevailing high rates of the necessaries of life T;eep numbers of families from settling down i among us. We find everywhere that | work is abundant and wages good ; yet there presents itself that strangeanomoly a sparse, population, and we. ! can arrive at no other conclusion than I that, notwithstanding there is plenty i of work at a high ra< e of wages, the i workman finds the cost of living quite ; overbalances the proceeds of his labor, | and that he is actually bet'er off in I countries where, although his wnges

may be lses, the proportions between ( money earned and money expended f leaves a balance in his favor. . This is i really a very serious .matter, and de- ; - mantis eatnes't consideration. It per- i sonally effects every kmner anffl business man in the province,and a remedy i must fee provided somehow*. " i The \"alue of ,a bullock ,by ; the carcase ranges, we believe, something . between 45s and 50s. per 100'lb., while the retail .price .to,, the .public is from 9d. to Is...pes.lb. ..Sheep, "by the carcase, are worth from 15s. to lGs., tihe retail price being from (id to Is. per lb. Now, as most''of-'the sheep killed in this neighborhood will weigh upon an average fifty pounds, and considering that the skin of tho animal is 'of some value, sd. per lb. would leave a very handsome profit. In Canterbury we find there exists some reasonable proportions .between*' the wholesale and retail pr'ces of meat. The who'esale and retail prices of meat there' are,—for beef; 40s to 425. 6d. per 100; mutton. 2£d. and 3d. per lb. Retail prices :—-Beef, 2d. to 7d. per lb. ; mutton, 3d. to 4d petlb. It therefore appears that the actual wholesale price .of meat in t'onterbury and here, with the exception of a slight difference in beef, which is a trifle higher, is identical, and we can only inquire how it happens that we goldfields residents suffer ourselves to pay so much above the real value of such an article of dai y consumption as butchers' meat. We have heard many butchers argue that a number of their customers do not pay ; that they (the butchers) are compelled to " shout" drinks at public-houses as a means of obtaining custom, and that a similar practise is I imposed upon them when they receive payment for their articles. We will allow that these circumstances are substantially correct, but it is an uffai that concerns only the butcher him self. It offers no sufficient reason i why one.person should be called upon j to pay a higher price for an article j because another fails to pay at all ; nor does it hold good that, by the ' | same process, that the butcher should |;be supplied with the means to fraternise and diink uobblers with his customer the'publican; A man having money in his pocket, reasonably expects to receive full value fir that money when he exchanges it for other commodities. He has probably barj tered, at the market price, either his labor or his skill as the means of ob- | taining it,and it is nothing more than legitimate that he should receive in ; the interchange of commodities a foir ! equivalent. Any sensible Knight of the Cleaver | would object to pay beyond the cur- : rent value for an ox or a sheep because the squatter or breeder from whom he purchased lived expensively, or failed to conduct his establishment with due and proper regard to economy, and it is only reasonable to suppose that the same views would be held by the customer of the butcher. . What the public require is that they should obtain meat at a price per pound (allowing a moderate prqfit to the vendor) bearing some proportionate relation to its prime cost by the carcase