THE MEAT MARKET.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1919, Page 2

THE MEAT MARKET.

REDUCED PRICES OFFERING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 30. The reduced prices that are being offered by the meat companies for meat, amounting to a reduction to about oneeighth of a penny per pound on wether mutton, are defended by the companies here on the ground that values of byproducts, notably tallow and pelts, are going to decline and that congestion of meat in the stores is going to restrict slaughtering this season. The companies do not attach weight to unofficial statements regarding the supply of shipping in the near future and they point to the fact that they are starting the season with the stores three parts full of last season's meat.

The Prime Minister stated just before his departure for the Peace Conference that the latest advices regarding the supply of shipping were very hopeful. He believed that there would be no trouble about meat and dairy produce and that sjuee would be found presently for tallow and hemp, which have not been lifted to any large extent for some time past, But Mr Masey did not give any new figures regarding shipping space and tho figures that are available are considered locally to indicate that the factories will not, be able to kill all the stock offering this season. The position with regard to tallow and pelts is somewhat peculiar. Prices have been high on the world's markets during the war, and New Zealana values have risen accordingly. But the shortage of shipping has kept large quantities of these commodities in the Dominion and it is not certain now that the tallow and pelts, when shipped, will bring anything like the prtces at which they have been assessed under war conditions.