CANADIAN MEAT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 62, 14 March 1944, Page 2

CANADIAN MEAT

INTERNAL PROBLEM j BRITAIN'S NEED OF FOODS Lack of shipping was not the -I reason for the temporary cessation jj of meat rationing in Canada, stated 1 Mr. W. Bankes Amery, leader of the United Kingdom food mission in Australia and New Zealand, in an interview in Auckland to-day.

Canada was not, in normal times, a large-scale meat exporting country and had not, therefore, the internal facilities for handling large quantities of refrigerated foodstuffs, to the extent that New Zealand and Australia had. As a result of this there had been internal transport difficulties which were causing the present hold-up.

Regarding the effect of increased agricultural output in Britain on the post war market for New Zealand products, he stated that efforts had been concentrated on crops that would not affect New Zealand exports. These consisted of beet for the production of sugar, cereals and root crops. Last year, Britain had produced a record crop of potatoes 100.000,000 tons. New Zealand, however, was interested in dairy products and meat In Britain butter and cheese production had declined. Certain special brands of cheese, for which Britain was famous, were no longer produced. So far as meat was concerned, Britain normally produced some 1,000,000 tons annually, but It had been impossible to maintain even this output.

Concerning the development of margarine as a substitute for butter Mr. Bankes Amery stated that he personally could detect the difference in taste as compared with butter, and he thought that, despite the difference in price, most British people would be willing to exchange their 4oz ration of margarine a week for a similar quantity of butter. To what extent margarine, which was selling at 5d to 9d pound, would replace butter, now selling, at 1/8 a pound, after the war, depended on the wage level then ruling, he said, and nobody could tell what that level would be.