I QUEENSLAND'S EXAMPLE. During his New Plymouth meeting Mr. P. Eraser, M.P., spoke of the success of State enterprise by the Labor Government in Queensland, paying particular attention to the success of the State meat shops, with which he contrasted "the miserable failure of the New Zealand Government's attempt to open a meat shop at Auckland." We have just run across aa account of the ■ "success" of the State butchers' shops in Town.sville, Queensland, which is stated to be in the most favorable position possible. They get their meat fresh from the meat works for 3d per lb for six months in the year, and for 3Ad per lb frozen for the other six months. They sell for cash at from 4d to lOd per lb., and as they have a huge turnover, should show "some" profit when their margin is from Id +" fiid per lb. Yet what do we find? ' Auditor-General's report gives the following: "Townsville head shop loss, £3617 6s. 4d; Causeway shop loss, £1053 Ss 6d; Railway Estate shop loss, £491 7s sd; North Ward shop loss, £142 16s."— total £5904 18s 3d. Here are shops doing business on a cash basis, no delivery, with a margin of from Id to 7d per lb in winter, and %d to GJd per lb in sum- j mer, and yet losing nearly £GOOO. The total turnover of the State shops in Townsville for the year was just under £30,000, and the loss about £6OOO, or a fifth of the total turnover. We would like to hftvg Mr, Eraser's, explanation of
this position, which ia somewhat different from what lie led the local people to believe. The fact of the matter is that Mrj Fraser does not take the trouble to verify his statements. So long as they serve his purpose for the time being is all is concerned with, forgetting that only by indisputable facts aiid sound argument can any cause be advanced. The workers have a cause that deserves promotion, but irresponsibles and extremists of the Fraser type would prejudice any good cause.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19190325.2.22
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1919, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
345Untitled Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1919, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.