DEARER BACON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 106, 7 May 1934, Page 4

DEARER BACON.

POSITION IN BRITAIN. REDUCED CONSUMPTION. Remarkable evidence of the effects of the bacon quota was provided by Sir James Martin, chairman of Home and Colonial Stores, at the general meeting of the company in London on March 20. Very soon after the Government's import: restriction policy hud been adopted, a rise in retail prices began. The decrease in consumption, which was bound to follow, has now become apparent. Home and Colonial Stores suffered a fall in profits last year of .£ 150,0U0, directly attributable, according to Sir James Martin, to u shrinking in consumption of bacon. The same tendency toward shrinking bacon consumption was recorded at the general meeting of Meadow Dairies on March 19, says the "Economist." Moreover, Sir James Martin, who may be assumed to have some practical knowledge of the bacon market, expressed the opinion at the Home and Colonial'meeting that if the present restrictionist policy is continued bacon may "go out of fashion as an article of food in many households." The public. Sir James added, who are after all pretty shrewd in their judgment, do not hesitate to buy what in their viewoffers the best value, and have no hesitation in substituting one article for another in budgeting for their household requirements. This is but one among many of the simple economic facts which Mr. Elliot's clumsily improvised schemes failed to take into account, comments the "Economist." The theory behind those schemes was that the price of one commodity after another could be forced up in the interest of the producer by limiting the supply; and the probable repercussions of such a policy on demand were forgotten or disregarded. In practice, as was inevitable, the consumer is beginning to assert himself; and in the case of bacon it seems likely that in the long run not only the retailer and the public but the farmer himself may be injured. Jf bacon is too dear to buy, no farmer. English or Danish, will get anything for it. We hope that the reaction of the consumer to this case may incline Mr. Elliot to study the factor of demand. If ho did so. it might perhaps dawn upon him that the interest of producer and consumer alike lies not in restriction of supplies but in a cheapening of production- and an expansion of demand. -