THE BEEF AND MUTTON QUESTION.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1715, 16 August 1862, Page 3

THE BEEF AND MUTTON QUESTION.

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Auckland markets arc proverbially unsteady, subject to much fluctuation in prices, and dependent for supplies upon circumstances over which mere consumers have no control. Each of the sections of labour has its own arbitrary method of determining prices, and no opportunity is lost which can justify or excuso a demand for advanced rates. It is observable that whilst, under certain exceptional conditions, prices rise with great promptitude, there is no disposition to return with auything like equal promptitude to the lower standard, when the exceptional conditions no longer exist. These remarks apply particularly to the • present cost of thatneccssary oflife which takes the shape of butchers' meat, and which is now mounting rapidly to a famine figure. Years ' ago there used to bo published, regularly in j

?il A nn, kla ? d j° urnal — l about the periods when . lua J c °utracts for military supplies were issued—a series of articles in tvliich it ® ,e Proved to the satisfaction of the writer that the supply of stock in the Province was wholly unequal to the demand—that we were eating breeding ewes and young cows, and that the price of beef and mutton must rise. Ihe true believers in this theory, wlO had control of the trade in one mode or another, generally got the contracts at satislactory rates, and, notwithstanding their forebodings, they were able to complete their engagements with satisfaction and profit to themselves. Occasionally indeed the retail prices of beef and mutton have been lower than the contract rate for the troops, and, notwithstanding that it has been over and over again demonstrated on paper that such a result was impossible, the number of stock in the i lovinco has continued steadily to increase. We observe that lately, in the same quarter to which we have made reference above, a disposition has been shown to revive the old doctrine of a failing supply, and we think it Worth while for the information of the public to give a few statistical facta

winch will show what the state of the case really is. The lastest census returns prove that in this Province the European settlers had 36,482 head of great cattle and 67,803 sheep; returns also show that in three years, since 1858, the increase of greats cattle, notwithstanding the largely increased consumption in those years, was 4782 head,‘l and of sheep 9011. The stock in the hands'* of the Natives is not included in these re-i turns. Looking to the figures above given, ji wo are not able to find anything to justify! the forebodings in which a contemporary** has lately indulged, nor to account for recent rise ill prices of butchers’ meat. In . the ten years since 1851 the “ great cattle’J have increased in number from 10,943 tc™

36,482, and sheep from 11,075 to 67,803. of But in estimating our sources of supply, ier must not be forgotten that we live on ar a island not of very vast extent, and that besid# us, touching our southern boundary, are thlr Provinces of Wellington and Hawke, both c£ them pastoral districts. In these Proviuce>jy there were in December last 57,643 head aeu great cattle, and 224,085 sheep. With regulatP* steam communication from port to port seems to us that if it bo the pleasure of th? ni the butchers or others to make us pay for meat the scarcity of stock in this is not the cause. jjat

Some years ago in Auckland bread w*?subject also to "fluctuate upwards" in pricl eir and to stand at the highest point irrespective"! of a fall in the price of flour. A remedy wa^. then generally applied thus: a project for thpid formation of a joint stock baking companwused to be started, and on the followinps Monday the bakers gave in and lowered thei l 0 prices. It was a simple and very etfectiv on " expedient. It would not, we should think in these days of local enterprise, be difficult to establish a co-operative association for th ood 0 od supply of butcher meat to the members a we cost price. It would be well at least that ft » should bo known that there is a method c !UV > r overthrowing that which appears to many t< V( : r<! be a combination, on the part of the butchers c^ of a few gentlemen at Newmarket, arbitraril^se to fix the price of an important article of tlfrom people's food. was ar of