THE PRICE OF MEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 99, 12 September 1912, Page 4

THE PRICE OF MEAT.

To the Editor. . Sir, Without warning or publicity, the, butchers of -New Plymouth hare increased the price of meat by about a penny a lb. all round, as "Well aa Snw posing a further half-penny per lb, (font delivery. I write to ask you, Sir, th« reasons for making these increases. Some time ago the prices were advanced, it being given out that the increased price of bullocks was the- cause, but when the, wholesale price, subsequently receded there was no corresponding docrease in the retail price. In any case the state of the market in respect to prime, bullocks doe.i not actually affect the butchers, as a perusa 1 of the monthly abattoir reports shows that only a small proportion of the meat killed is bullocks, < the bulk of the "prime" beef being cut from reject dairy cows. The ratepayers ' own the abattoirs, where the officials do the slaughtering. Why not the municipality go a step further and retail the meat they kill? It is done by municipalities in slow, conservative England; why not here? We might then get our meat at a reasonable price, and might also see less store cows and more prime bullocks figuring in the abattoir returns. —I am, etc., HEAD OF A FAMILY.