The Unlucky Consumer

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 65, 9 December 1938, Page 13

The Unlucky Consumer

Sir, —A champagne life on a beer income is indeed a calamity and inevitably ends, sooner than expected, in a sad day of reckoning. This is applicable to a nation as well ae an individual living extravagantly. The present Government seems to be obsessed with the mental image of a still higher standard of living and greater indulgence in so-called "luxuries,” but no one seems to think our feeding needs any planning. Is it any wonder we remain a C 3 people with hospitals- full to overflowing? AVe continue to ignore the real truth, namely, that the expenditure of millions is of small avail to repair broken organs or resuscitate the powers of digestion. How much we have to learn in New Zealand becomes clearly more apparent to any person who realizes from a survey of our internal needs that: more attention must be paid to the improvement and preservation of health. Improvement in our national health cun only be brought about by paying more attention to proper feeding and by wasting less time in believing we can make one bound out of our ewad- 1

dling clothes and lead the world in all tilings. With reference to the question of "insulation, ” Mr. Savage in today's “Dominion” states “Unless we have some control over our overseas trade we just cannot protect ourselves.” AVith all due respect I to Mr. Savage and his ideals I venture to suggest that what we New Zealanders really require is "more control over ourselves” and less prejudice against traditions of purely British origin that made New Zealand, what she is. Air. Savage refers to the fact that "the price of butter in the London market has fallen heavily in recent weeks, but the income of the dairy-farmer suffers no longer from falling overseas prices,” At. whose expense. Air. Savage? With butter selling retail in London for 1/2 a lb. compared to 1/7 in New Zealand the favoured treatment is a charge on the consumer, who is not only a victim of the guaranteed price but owing to reduced consumption his household is being deprived of the essential vitamin D for which there is no substitute. Admittedly the dairy-farmer is assured of a fixed price, but with butter at 1/7 a lb. in New Zealand retail sales are dropping and the health of the community is suffering in consequence. There is a difference between the two temporal blessings—health and money: “Aloney is the most envied but the least enjoyed ; health the most enjoyed but the least envied.” The guaranteed price is falling heavily on the consumer and as we are not piling up armaments in the Dominion there is surely no excuse for New Zealanders contributing an enormous amount yearly in the form of food taxes. —-I am. etc.. T. A. FRASER. Wellington, December 8.