AUCTION SALES OF MEAT.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 467, 18 February 1869, Page 3

AUCTION SALES OF MEAT.

A new system of auction sales of meat in small quantities appears likely to prove a great success in Dunedin. The Daily Times states: —" A short time since Messrs Power, Pantlin, and Co. instituted these sales weekly at an establishment in Rattray street, and the large measure of patronage they received from persons who preferred to purchase a side or so of mutton at a low rate to getting it in smaller, though perhaps more convenient, quantities at a higher price from the regular butchers, induced the latter to co-operate and open a similar establishment adjoining the first one. Both these places, that of Messrs Power, Patlin, and Co, at the horse bazaar in Rattray street, and that of the united butchers at the shop of Gardner and Co., two doors distant, are now open every Saturday morning and evening for the sale of meat by auction. At presant these auction sales are restricted to mutton and lamb; but there is little doubt that, as the system becomes more organised, they will include beef, veal, and, in fact, all kinds of butchers' meat. The sales commenced last Saturday evening at six o'clock, there being, we believe, about 50 sheep and three lambs on sale at Gardner and Co's, and about the same quantity at the rival establishment. The whole quantity was sold in a very short space of time, chiefly to working men, who took one, and, in a very few instances, two sides each, the prices for small sides being in some cases as low as 3s a side, and in others as high as 8s 6d for a side of lamb of the finest quality. The institution of these periodical sales cannot but be a great boon to all classes of society, and more particularly to persons having large families.