BUTTER RATIONING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 230, 28 September 1943, Page 4

BUTTER RATIONING

DAIRY BOARD'S ADVICE

DROP IN PRODUCTION

(0.C.) MASTERTON, Monday. Referring to the question of rationing' butter, Mr. A. Linton a member of the Dairy Board, said' at a meeting of the Farmers' Union to-day that the board had been consulted by the Government, which it advised to ration butter immediately at the rate of Soz per head per week but the Government had not yet taken action. Mr. Linton said the sale of cream would have to be regulated.

To meet the demand for butter from England, the Pacific and local consumption, New Zealand would have to produce 153,000 tons of butter. Last year 105,000 tons of butter was exported, and in the face of the labour shortage and the shortage of | fertiliser, Mr. Linton said he did not think the increase could be reached. The Government, he said, would have to face up to the position and ration butter and regulate the sale of cream by dairy factories. The situation was so grave in England, he added, that secondary and whey butter was being exported to enable England to maintain its ration of 2oz per person per week. With regard to the rationing of meat, Mr. Linton said that if the consumption of meat was reduced by one pound per person per week 345,000 additional tons of meat would be available for export. "The Government has not faced up to the manpower problem," stated Mr. Linton. He added that although the monetary value of dairy exports had increased there had been a reduction of 11.7 per cent for the year ended July 31, 1943. Production had dropped for the month of August, 1943, by an additional 23 per cent. In some areas climatic conditions had contributed to the position but the greater -part of the dairyareas of the Dominion had not had bad weather. Although the Minister of Industrial Manpower, Mr. McLagan, had said that 8000 men had been released for the dairy industry the industry had not received any.'