CEREALS SHORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 6

CEREALS SHORT

BREAKFAST FOODS

LITTLE OATS FOR MILLS

Breadwinners who like to breakfast these cold mornings on a steaming hot plate of porridge are disappointed men. There is no porridge. Those who prefer a lighter breakfast dish of cereals are also disapponted men. There are no cereals. Those who would make up the deficiency in lashings of bacon are also gloomy. There is very little bacon. But there is still toast and tea (when, for gas consumers, there is gas to cook them with). Few grocers' shops in Auckland to-day have any breakfast foods and most of them have been supplying customers from "hand to mouth" for some time. The absence of rolled oats, oatmeal and similar foods approaching midwinter is a serious matter, and the first shortage of this kind since the war. A combination of adverse circumstances is responsible for a shortage of oats in the south, and this is reflected in the decreased turnover in the mills. Last year's oat crop was poor, and because there was no carryover from the previous season, the mills had nothing with which to start the new season. Floods in the south affected the production of oats considerably, and the mills have simply been unable to overtake the demand. A leading Auckland mill, which normally supplies a large section of the trade with oatmeal, has ceased manufacturing this commodity until July. Difficulty has been experienced also in securing shipping space. A consignment of oats arrived from the south last week, but it is reported that it will afford only slight relief. The restricted suppty of meals has resulted in a greatly increased demand for the various flaked breakfast foods, the manufacturers of which have problems of their own. Importations of Australian wheat, the most suitable for making these cereal foods, have ceased, following on the drought losses, and there are indications that New Zealand wheat is barely sufficient for South Island requirements. In the meanwhile the manufacturers have been carrying on [ with Canadian wheat. They are handicapped to some extent by labour problems, and, although doing their utmost to meet the demand, actually they are unable to satisfy but a section of it. Probably the largest consumer of porridge in the city is the Auckland Hospital. Patients there have had their allowances reduced on occasions, but generally the hospital has managed satisfactorily, as it receives priority in the matter of essential Mr. John Gray, purchasing officer for the Auckland Hospital Board, stated to-day that supplies of oatmeal had been received from the south to avert any severe shortage. Similar assistatnce had been given in the matter of potatoes, which were difficult to procure at the moment.