THE MEAT QUESTION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 204, 4 October 1916, Page 4

THE MEAT QUESTION.

TRUE POSITION IN ENGLAND. To the Editor. Sir, —Your leading article rs N.Z. meat is very interesting, an£| with your permission I will add a few more facts just to try and awaken the farmer, who generally replies to any question re the Meat "Ah, the Government will y{ them."" It is of the first and utmost importance to dwell on the fact, that It ta

not the Argentine producer who is benefiting by the past high prices in London, but the combine who mado their own market, viz., the shipperor, in other words, the Meat Trusr., who were powerful enough to enforcea clause in all their Imperial contracts that no restrictions as to price should be placed on what they chose to place on the Home market. Nov.-, the point is, N.Z. lamb and surplus mutton was released by the Imperial Government at a restricted price. Who got it? Bit of a paradox. The retail butcher did, and again he did not. The true factsare as follows, and can be vouched ror by thousands of retail butchers at Home: New Zealand meat was released to the wholesalers, and in inost

cases it was New Zealand no more, labels off, wrappers gone, cut into sides, quarters, anything, so that it could not be identified by the retail butcher who naturally was always trying to get the cheapest quoted meat, and whose inquiry for New Zealand meat was met by the reply "Sold out," etc., etc., "Only Argentine this morning," price 141 d per lb., or close to it. This scandalous state of affairs was too hot to last, and after severalmonths' hard work by the National Federation of Meat Traders in knocking down the barriers of red tape at the Board of Trade, the secretary, W. Payne, Esq., of the National Federa,tion was able to issue to the retailers a manifesto from the Board of Trade, dated June 26, 1916, to the effect that if the said retailers sent their ordem direct to the Board of Trade they would be guaranteed 25 per cent of the amount required. That "burst the bubble"; from that date Argentine lamb prices have subsided, beautifully and gracefully, until now they are quoted to-day below New Zealand. ' I was a butcher and member of the National Federation at 'Home for yearsj and from the testimony of many* old pals in the trade, including the above-mentioned Mr Payne, I can vouch for the truth of the facts above stated. On reading Sir Thomas Mackenzie's explanation, the first thought was, inspired, or written, by whom? Secondly, the futility of any branch of industry relying on. Governments, instead of the combined power oiSthe said industry striving and working as one corporate body.—l am,' etc., •..</, SAM. S. TIMBS.