NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 138, 7 March 1942, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Temporary release from military duties of men able to handle farm machinery should enable the farmers in the south to extend the areas they intended to put under crops. The position may not allow the importation of supplies so that for the coming season a special effort must be made to produce sufficient wheat for all domestic requirements. Preparations have to be made well ahead, and the heavy task is to plough the land and prepare it for the autumn sowing. That was where the shortage of skilled workers made itself felt, and the action of the authorities iu making meu in camp available lias certainly helped to solve the immediate problem., There is need, however, for plans for doing as much as possible of essen-; tial work of this character when this reserve of labour may not be available. The placing of groups of farms, or all in a defined district, on a cooperative basis has already been discussed, and at least in some of the dairying districts, carefully organized, and it is along those lines that future i action may be directed. What is only a temporary measure must not be 1 allowed to put the more permanent organization out of mind. The great need is to place these truly essential industries on a basis that will last “for the duration.”

It should be a great help to those who are wrestling with, the task of organizing civil precautions when the national leader of the E.P.S. returns to Wellington and takes up the reins of his job. There is great and urgent need for headquarters administration —for active, Dominion-wide control by a leader-on-the-spot who is in a position to examine problems as they come forward and issue positive directions in orderly sequence. This need cannot properly be filled while Mr. Semple is moving about the country spending a large part of his time and energies on the public platform. He may be doing some good by exhorting laggards to realize the danger, confronting us, but in view of the fact that national service has ceased to optional, exhortations should no longer bo considered necessary. The leader’s job should now be to direct, not appeal. The commander of an, army at war does not remain on the recruiting platform. His place is at the focal point of organizing activity. So should it be with the Minister of National Service. The supervision of civil machinery for possible eva-, cuation (referred to in this column earlier in the week) is but one of I many major tasks of national E.P.S. direction waiting to be completed. Surely these cannot be adequately handled ir. conjunction with a programme of public addresses.

Although the move in Britain for the adoption of simplified clothing designs is sponsored by the Board of Trade, it would be a mistake to imagine that private manufacturers have done nothing to promote this form of economy. Early iu the war one large British firm offered a “battledress” suit—a modification of the well-known Army design—and many savings, such as cuffless trousers, flapless pockets and buttonless sleeves have already been accepted by the public. The Board of Trade is merely extending and perhaps standardizing the practice by encouraging the elimination of such unnecessary items as double-breasted jackets for men and needless embroidery for women. It will be interesting'to what extent clothing designers and cutters in this country follow the lead given by their British colleagues. The potential advantages here are surely just as great as at Home, for there is growing need in New Zealand for conservation of material and saving of labour. Apart from this, a general adoption of the fashion of more simple clothing would strike a keynote for the more simple and vigorous wartime living to which the community must accustom itself.

The export of dehydrated butter from the Dominion to Great Britain, disclosed by Professor Riddet, director of the Dairy Research Institute, may prove to be one of the major developments of the dairying industry in the war years. The immediate benefit, assuming that facilities will be available to deal with a substantial quantity of butter, would be the lessened demand on cool storage space on the ships, for the production can be carried at ordinary temperatures, thus freeing the cool chambers for the transport of perishable foodstuffs. There are, of course, many factors that will require attention. There is the cost involved in treating the butter, as well as the price which the British authorities are prepared to pay, both affecting to a large extent the return to the producers. Will they enable that return to be established at economic levels? One of the tasks of the Dominion in post-war years will be to re-establish its position in the overseas markets. Competition may be exceptionally keen and the most active competitor with butter is margarine. Professor Riddet has stated that the dehydrated product, is not equal in quality to the best, grade table butter but is better than margarine. Quality is likely to be the deciding factor in the markets after the war, as it was prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and New Zealand won an established position because of the high quality of its produce. That asset must be retained.