RATIONED MEAT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26624, 21 November 1947, Page 4

RATIONED MEAT

CONCERN FELT LOCAL BUTCHERS COMPLAIN REPLY BY FOOD CONTROLLER “Under the coupon replacement system it is obvious that any butcher who fails to collect sufficient coupons to cover sales and thereby finds that he is unable to replace his meat stocks to the full, has the remedy entirely in his own hands, the remedy, of course, bieng a firm insistence that no couponed meat is sold unless full value of coupons is surrendered,” said the food controller, Mr A. J. Costelloe, in a statement issued last night in reply to the contentions made by Dunedin butchers recently that owing to the reluctance of some customers to give the full value of coupons for their meat they continued in business with diminishing stocks until they were forced to close down entirely. Local butchers complained that the system known as tolerance—whereby butchers are allowed a certain amount of meat above the value of coupons handed in—had been arbitrarily reduced by an estimated 85 per cent. It was stated that some butchers used this margin for the manufacture of smallgoods, which would be in danger of serious reduction. Adherence to Coupon System “To state that this is an impossibility overlooks the fact that many butchers in Dunedin and elsewhere throughout the Dominion have no difficulty in maintaining adequate stocks under the coupon replacement system because of their strict adherence to the principle of ‘ no meat without coupons,’ ” Mr Costelloe said. “If every butcher adopted this principle, it would be found that consumers would soon be brought to realisation that it was useless to enter a butcher’s shop and attempt to purchase above the availability of the current coupons. “It is completely untrue to say that there has been' any arbitrary reduction in .the amount of meat available to butchers for smallgoods manufacture. Smallgoods Manufacture “ Under the present system of meat rationing, allowance is made, within the coupon replacement, for every butcher to utilise a limited percentage of his meat for sale without coupons, in the form of smallgoods, without detriment to his ability to replace his stocks in full. This concession is uniform throughout New Zealand and has been in operation ever since the inception of the coupon scheme. Furthermore, no change in this percentage has been effected, or is contemplated. It therefore follows that if a butcher manufactures coupon-free meats in excess of the percentage allowed, his action is tantamount to selling meat without coupons and has the same effect on his legitimate quota. A decline in the quota through either of these means, results in a corresponding decline in the amount of meat available for smallgoods manufacture under the above percentage allowance.