The Wanganui Chronicle went looking for the last of the suburban butchers and found one in Patea. Hurley's Butchery owned by Grant Hurley.
After 30 years in business Patea butcher Grant Hurley proudly lays claim to one major achievement. "I still have all my fingers."
Mr Hurley reckons he's the only main street butcher between Levin and Stratford and one of just a handful of suburban butchers left operating in the country.
"I remember when there were eight butcher shops in Hawera alone." "Now there's one. Whanganui has two."
It's an ancient trade, dating back to the domestication of livestock. Butchers formed guilds in England as far back as 1272.
Floors of butchers' shops were spread with sawdust - thicker behind the counter - which soaked up blood and caught bits of fat. The sawdust was raked out at the end of each day and was changed once a week.
Butchers typically wore a white and blue horizontal-striped apron from the waist down. They made their own small goods - sausages, saveloys and luncheon.
And plenty of Kiwi kids would look forward to a free saveloy snuck to them by their friendly butcher as mum did the shopping.
"Those days are gone - I think it's a hygiene thing," Grants says.
"I might occasionally sneak one in a bag. Kids love them."
Before home refrigerators and freezers became common, shoppers bought meat daily or every couple of days. Many houses had meat safes or ice chests - but the latter required the regular delivery of ice to keep them cool. Meat was wrapped corner-to-corner in butchers' wrap (brown paper) and tied with string.
Hurley's Batchery in Patea. Photo/Bevan Conley
Butchers also offered regular delivery, and many customers had standing orders, which were delivered on appointed days.
Grant entered the profession straight from school, becoming an apprentice butcher at 17, and working for the Patea Freezing Works.
"It wasn't an unusual thing to want to be back then" he says.
When the works closed in 1982 he spent a year contracting before working for his old boss George Fenton. Mr Fenton had bought the butcher's shop that Grant in turn purchased two years later, and has run successfully since.
As well as being a retail butcher, Grant is also a licensed home kill butcher, or a dual operator.
"They are separate operations. We can't sell home kill to the public. It goes to the owners." That side of business has dropped away slightly over the years but the butchery itself is booming, he says.
"I had a couple in this morning who come over from Whanganui every week. Others are passing through town. About half our customers are not local."
So is there a secret to being one of the last suburban butcher shops? "Good meat. Rare cuts. Top service."
Of course you need to be able to butcher, which takes time. "It's a bit of an art. It can take years of practice."
Most butchers were family businesses, typically owner-operated, although some freezing works also had shop outlets. In 1896 the New Zealand Refrigeration Company bought its first shop in Christchurch - it would eventually own eight. Hellaby's, a company with its own freezing works, owned 32 butchers' shops in Auckland in the late 1950s.
Grant Hurley. Photo/Bevan Conley
A more recent chain of stores are those of Peter Leitch - a butcher whose one original 1960s store grew into a chain of Mad Butcher stores around the country.
In 1971 there were 5173 butchers in New Zealand. The arrival of supermarkets in the 1960s, combined with greater ownership of home freezers, saw the demise of many urban and suburban butchers' shops.
In modern times butcher shops tend to offer some unique product such as halal or free-range meat, or service.
Despite the decline of the suburban butcher there's still a career to be had. The New Zealand government careers website reports a shortage of butchers completing apprenticeships to fill available vacancies.
Butchers were needed in wholesale and retail enterprises, and more commonly in supermarkets.
Perhaps unsurprisingly Grant is not a fan of supermarket butchers. More than any other factor, supermarkets have played a major role in the decline of suburban butcher shops.
"They're not real butchers. They don't know how to break down an animal. It comes pre-cut," Grant says.
"Having everything centralised and meat delivered broken down has not been good for their skills or the industry. They are starting to train a few to break down beef. That's a move in the right direction."
Grant's sentiments are echoed by other butchers too, and not just in New Zealand. The Butchers' Guild is a fraternity of meat professionals based in the United States, but which has members from throughout the world.
"We are hoping to rebuild an industry ... centralisation killed the demand for skilled artisans," the guild says. "We see the future of food based in localised food communities that require the knowledge of the butcher and we are fostering this generation of craftsman." Back in Patea it's mid-morning and a delivery of beef has arrived to break down. Out back the air is sweet from the smokehouse.
Bacon is Grant's biggest seller. Sausages too - the steak and onion ones in particular.
"We also offer five types of pork bones. No-one else has them."
Photo/Bevan Conley
In total he sells over 50 cuts of meat.
"We used to sell out of just the window. Now we have two large freezers inside the shop as well. We offer a lot more variety than in the past."
Alas, the time has come for Grant to call it a day. He says the shop is for sale. "Thirty years is a good enough reason. I farm as well, I'll just do that."
He will continue on as the fire chief in Patea. And perhaps acting.
