MEAT PRICE FIXATION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21197, 21 August 1940, Page 6

MEAT PRICE FIXATION

In announcing the decision of the Price Tribunal to sanction an increase of a penny a pound in the retail price of meat the Hon. D. G. Sullivan disclosed that the Government had abandoned hope of controlling prices by methods previously adopted. Soon after the outbreak of war the Government decided that to avoid undue increases it would anchor the prices of livestock to the rates ruling at September the last year. By fixing retail prices also it hoped to hold living costs at a steady figure. But many factors have intervened to make that course almost impossible.

Mr Sullivan concluded that “it was inadvisable to introduce a complicated method of supervision of auction prices or any system that might have the effect of debarring the farmer from being compensated adequately for the extra cost of cattle fattened during the winter for spring sale.” To protect both the public and the producer it has therefore been decided that the whole situation would best be dealt with by the regulation of retail prices. Thus while the increased price is to be permitted during the spring, the order just made provides for reductions of a half-penny a pound on the first days of November, December and January next, thus returning the retail price to the original figure by the middle of next summer.

The public will welcome any relief from the present high prices of meat, and many other classes of goods, but the other side of the bargain also must be considered. In fairness to the producer of meat, can the prices of fat cattle be set back to those ruling at September 1, 1939 ? In the interim, costs of production have undoubtedly advanced. Costs of all kinds have increased, a fact which has been acknowledged by the Arbitration Court in granting increases in minimum wages. The farmer has to meet an accumulation of increasing costs, and if his income from fat stock is to be pegged at the figures of September, 1939, by the fixation of prices, either he or the retailer of the meat he produces must suffer a loss of the income previously enjoyed. Prices of fat stock may recede in the summer, but it is doubtful if they will go back to the levels of the past few years. By reducing the retail price the Government expects the reduction to take effect through the retailer to the producer.