FOOD PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 9 February 1917, Page 7

FOOD PRICES.

(TJ the Editor.) Sir, —I may be in error in regarding with' repugnance certain matters which appear to be generally viewed with much satisfaction, as indicative of the great aid we in New Zealand, while filling our own pockets, are affording towards winning the war.- The high prices'which we are. practically exacting from the Old Country (where money is now of paramount importance) for food products for our fighters 16 surely not a subject upon which we should congratulate ourselves. To mc nothing could be more: sordid or contemptible. I fear that some people do not grasp the fact that winning the war is the only thing that matters.' It will not profit a man to raises wheat and cattle only, as in- the case of Rumania, that they "may fall into the hands of the enemy, ' and himself into slavery. -The announcement of the Government's action as to local meat supplies has been most, warmly welcomed, j But why stop at meat -when bread calls for similar action? There are now very few who have not a relative or a dear friend at the front. We are surely lacking greatly if we do'not see that those gaining undue profit or conducting the sale\of local primary food supplies in an extravagant and unbusinesslike way are": either reformed or done away with.' The men whom we have 6ent with "such expressions of pride must 6urely on their return have but a sorry opinion of lis if, to keep the home fires burning, has meant' mulcting their dependents of every penny possible to extract. The future of New Zealand will assuredly* lie in the hands of the returned soldiers. They will be, as now, the only men that count. To them we must look for a Kew Zealand riiore worthy than now of itS great natural advantages.—l am. etc., NE\*"J ZEALAKDER.