Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 6 February 1866, page 3


DEAR MEAT.'

(From the Adelaide Observer, January 20.)

THERE is a mystery about the meat market which we confess we cannot understand. All

kinds of animal food are enormously dear and it is not easy to ascertain why it should be so. We cannot agree with a speaker at the Norwood meeting, that it arises from the enlargement of the squatting interest and the increase of Hooks.

There is no more connection between the two

things than there is between the Goodwin Sands and the Tenterden Steeple. They exist simultaneously, and that is an. Everybody is complaining of the exorbitant price of butchers' meat, but few agree as to why it is so, and fewer still can suggest a remedy. The halycon days

to which Mr. Moulden referred with so much regret, when the breakfast-table of the working man groaned under dishes of mutton chops and the evening air was perfumed with the delicious odor of beefsteak and onions, have passed away and with beef and mutton at 9d. or 10d. per lb., the working man and his family have to

be satisfied with a taste of butchers' meat once a day. This is the fact, but why the fact exists is the practical question at the present time.

Before the most reaches the consumer it passes through three hands. There is first the breeder, then the salesman, and then the butcher. Each

of those persons, of course must make his profit;

and before it reaches the consumer three distinct classes of profits have to be realised. Whether any one of those classes of profits is in excess of the others wocaniiotsoy.SomoBiiythattliolion's share falls to the producers ; others say it is intercepted by the dealers or middlemen and others say it is principally grasped by the butchers.

We confess from all we have heard we

have not much faith in the alleged combination amongst the squatters to keep up the price of meat. We believe that they who have fat stock are only too glad to find a market for it, and thus to turn it into money. We do not know what profits are obtained by the dealers, but as we believe stock is sold to the butchers at auction it would seem very clear that the prices which these tradesmen are willing to give will determine the amount of the profits which the middlemen realize It is strongly suspected, therefore, that the butchers obtain larger profits at the present high rates of more than either the producers or the dealers obtain. There are many persons who refer to the prices at which hoof and mutton are being sold at the East-end Market at the present time when compared with the prices used in the shops, as proving this fact. At the market the prices are mutton, 4d. to 5d. per Ib., against 5d. to 8d. in the shops and bool', 'lid, to 6^d.,ugahiBl 5d. to 10d, in the shops. The inference is that

if those who use the market can afford to sell

with a profit at the rates we have quoted, thou the butchers must be making enormous profits at the prices which they ask. It

ought to be home in mind, however, that the trade expenses of butchers having shops in the city and the suburbs are very considerable compared with those who send their most to the market. The rents are high, and the practice which prevails of sending men out every morning for orders, and then a second time for delivery, necessitates the employment of a large number of horses and much labor which have to be paid for out of the profits of the business. But making all due allowance for these expenses we still believe the price of meat is much too high. The public are in the

hands of the butchers, who can do with them ? very much as they like. To obtain cheap meat at the market a person must rise betimes, and be on the ground not later than 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, which is not very convenient to those who have no great passion for early rising. The butchers know this very well, and it may be they presume on the fact. At the present time they have practically a monopoly of the trade, and there seems to be a sort of orders ruling amongst them to keep up the prices.

Now the first remedy which suggests itself for this state of things is the erection of a suitable market, which would be accessible to the public at reasonable hours, and where butchers might exhibit their carcasses for sale. Such a market has long been talked about, and has been more than once discussed in the City Council. The present Mayor of Adelaide, Mr. Townsend, has) taken considerable trouble in the matter, and has more than once urged it upon the attention of his colleagues. We arepose it would be impossible to find in the whole of England a town of the tone of Adelaide in which there was not a public market and it is not very creditable to us to be without one. We believe a public market would call out a healthy competition, which would have the effect of reducing the prices of many of the

necessaries, of life.

But another thing is needed. If any one class combine against the community, as a whole, then the community ought to combine for their own protection. We have an instance of the good that may be effected in this way in the success which has attended the operations of the Aerated Bread Company, II has not only benefited the public by selling its own bread at a cheaper rate than the bakers were selling, but it has led them to reduce their prices. Bakers who a fortnight ago were charg-ing 6d. for the two-pound loaf, are now advertising it as 5d. or send. Suppose, thou, a mool company were established on the co-operative principle, we have no hesitation in saying that prudently and energetically conducted, it would instantly bring down the present exorbitant prices within reasonable bounds. We have no wish to deprive the butchers of fair and reasonable profits. They are a class of the community who are useful in their way. But the interest of the whole ought to be looked at in preference, to the interests of a class and in a pastoral land, such, as South Australia is, it seems hardly right that most should be so dear But, perhaps, the one thing which would tend to cheapen meat above all others would be for the farmers to engage in stock-keeping in connection with agricultural operations. We have urged this upon the attention

of our readers. It would be a benefit

in two ways ; it would pay directly by the sale of of the cattle and sheep, and it would pay indirectly by the improvement it would effect in the land. There are a few gentlemen who have tried, and we believe they have been suecheerful. Surely we have a sufficient number of public spirited yeomen within a reasonable distance

of Adelaide who would be willing to test ; the feasibility of combining pastoral pursuits with farming operations. If this could be done, then, we have little fear of the result. The price of stock would come down, and beef and mutton would be obtainable at reason-able prices. We have no wish to sea mutton at ltd- a, lb., as it once was, when a leg of mutton could be bought for a shilling. It is better for all classes that higher prices than these should rule. But there ought to be, a happy medium between 6d. and 8d. or 9d. The one is as much too high as the other is too low. If the blame lies with the squatters, the farmers entering into competition with them would soon break up their alleged combinations ; if the middlemen intercept the profits, then the farmers could deal immediately with the butchers ; or if the butchers are to blame, a meat company would quickly stir them up and make them more amenable to reason. At any rate something ought to be done if meat is not to become in this land as it is in so many places in England-the luxury of the few instead of being the necessity of the many.

As the mid-day Worcester train was about leaving the depot, a man of the Johnsonian type of manners entered one of the cars, and gruffly requested that two young ladies occupying separate seats should sit together, that he and his friend might enjoy a tete-a-tete on the other Beat. But, said one of the damsels, blushing, this seat is engaged. Engaged is it ? brusquely responded the man: who engaged in A young man, said the conscious maiden.'' A young man, ohP Where's his baggage? persisted Ursa Major. I'm his baggage, Old Hateful, replied the demure dam Bel, putting her rosy lips into the prettiest pout. Old Hateful subsided : the young man came in, extending his arm proseemingly, almost caressingly, around his baggage, and Mr. Conductor Capron started the

train,