WORKERS AS MEAT-EATERS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 72, 25 November 1913, Page 7

WORKERS AS MEAT-EATERS

SOME SNTEREST|NC EVIDENCE. . ;;• ' 'i.!<■' During the progress pL Post or Living Inquiry in Sydney, before Mr Justice Heydou, at the (Industrial Court, frequent allusions have been made to the meat-eating capacity of the average working man. According to the evidence of several workingclass housewives who have given evidence, butchers’ bills generally constitute a heavy item in the weekly expenditure on household necessities the husband of one witness consumed a pound of meat regularly each meal. A master butcher, giving evidence, remarked, that that instance'was not extraordinary. Said he, “I have known a farrier eat 141 b of meat at every meal.”

George Wheeler, who owns several butchering establishments in the suburbs, was the witness, and he told the Court that it was no uncommon thing for the quantity of meat consumed by a family of five—husband, wife, ami three children—to exceed 12 lb per week. “In fact,” lie went on, “the workers are the only real meateaters. 1 would not open a shop amongst any but a working-class community.” Proceeding, he detailed his observations of the daily purchases of. some of his customers. The cost usually amounted to about 2s per day. Meat nowadays was a more expensive item than it was a few years ago. In bis opinion, the growth ol the tinned meat industry was responsible for that.

Mr Connin<>;ton (for the. Trades and Labor Council): Hasn’t llio export trade had something to do with it?— Witness: Yes, it always has had. But at one time the exporters’ rejects were available for the public. Now they are taken by the preservers. To Mr Bolin (for the Employers’ Federation), witness described the sorts of meat usually eaten by work-ing-class customers. Steak, sausages, corned beet, briskets, and small shoulders of mutton constituted the most frequent purchases. Pork was too expensive as a general rule. Incidentally he threw a little light orp the inner workings ol the butchering industry. .According to his experience, a great deal of waste was unavoidable. Of lo.OOOih of meat taken in weekly at 0110 of his branches, fully 8001 h in tin' shape of hones and fat—“drawhack*’ was the term he used—went to tile boiling down works.