Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1943. MANPOWER POSITION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 35, 20 November 1943, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1943. MANPOWER POSITION

With the manpower authorities’ appeal to town employers to release as many employees as possible for seasonal work in the country and the statement by the Dominion Executive of the Farmers’ Union on the causes of the downward trend of primary production public attention has been again, directed to a vital problem. The needs of the world in fats and proteins present New Zealand with an opportunity of doing good in the very field in which she is best equipped and best endowed. Fats and proteins are the staples of her export trade —butter, cheese and meat. Wool is the other chief item and there can be no doubt that Europe and the Far East are as hungry for woollens as for foods. Indeed, warm clothing would help to reduce the intake of calories. In no other country can such large surpluses of fats and proteins be piled up for a smaller expenditure of manpower. Yet New Zealand, in common with all the Allied countries except Britain but including Russia, has neglected primary production in favour of building up the services and munition industries. First the United States and then Australia recognised that the balance had been seriously upset. The United States has held back three million land workers from the draft and Australia is returning tens of thousands from the services to the land. New Zealand has not yet taken effective action. Land girls can alleviate the manpower shortage on the farms but they cannot cure it, even if thousands more were recruited. The Government should not only comb the services more thoroughly for land workers; it should review its military commitments in the light of a new policy that food production should now be given the highest priority. Industries classified as essential should be examined from the same angle.