CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9056, 15 February 1908, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—l notice by this morning's "Age" that Cr Yarr has given notice of motion to consider the advisability of establishing a Municipal retail butchery. In face of the revelations made by a correspondent to your Wellington morning contemporary the best thanks of the community are due to Cr Yarr tor having the courage to "beard the lion in his den." At the present time, under the conditions of distribution that obtain, one has only to note the enormous waste resulting from so many competing firms in this line of business. In the street that I live in you can see it in a most marked degree. You will see one cart come along and supply one or two people in the street, then at intervals, as many as half-a-dozen do the same thing. This no doubt, applies to nearly every street, and the upkeep of all this array of vehicles, horses, harness, etc., must be put on to the price thf people have to pay for their meat. What we want is a little organisation by the people themselves, through their elected representatives (the Municipality) and all this waste could be avoided. Then the people would get meat that was fit for eating, at an infinitisimal cost as compared with the prices now charged. , If the Council feel it incumbent upon them to supply water, gas and coal, to avoid monopoly in these things, and to supply the very best articles at the cheapest price, it follows that we must look to them for protection from this trust in embryo also. If the Council can administer these things successfully, as every one must admit they have done, then we can surely ask them to extend their operations to a necessity such as meat. We do allow these people to kill their own meat now. Experie-ce has taught us that they cannot be trusted to do this. They abused their privilege to such an extent that the Government, to protect the people from disease, and to ensure cleanliness, took this power from them, hence our Municipal abattoirs. People have now confidence that r.o diseased animal can be killed and sold for human consumption, and. that cleanliness is assured. It is, however, impossible to fix a standard of quality, such as can be done with milk, so they, recognising this, take advantagj of their opportunity and supply us with old cow beef, as the report of your abattoirs reveal. This question should be faced by the Council, not from the private enterprise standpoint, because the food of the people is much more necessary to be safeguarded, than the mere interest of private individuals, who bleed the community without compunction, and who would not consider the people so long as they are making a fat thing uut of it. It is the duty of the citizens to encourage the furthering of Municipal enterprise, and it behoves them to watch the discussion, and subsequent vote (that is provided we have a man with sufficient backbone to second Cr Yarr's motion). If it fails to find a seconder, or is talked out, then we need not be surprised, but should see that men imbued with the same motive to conserve the interests of the people are put forward at the next election. It is only along these lines that the people can expect to be freed fron? the power of these and other greedy extortioners, and the sooner the public recognise this the better it will be for all concerned.—l am, etc., F. McD. G.