PRICE OF EGGS

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 76, 27 September 1916, Page 11

PRICE OF EGGS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—:" Ch.e._ea Bun," while pretending to give " the point of view of the general buying public," appears to me to be giving purely the pastrycook's point of view. Even then .the correspondent gets hopelessly lost between the shrub of superficiality aid the mists" of assumption. He says poultrymen have been active in trying to induce- the authorities to prohibit the importation, of eggs. " That is not correct.- To' prohibit the importation* of Chines© eggs is the purpose.., Those Chinese eggs which a correspondent under another pen name stated in The Post that the extent of this trad? was not worth attention, yetare now swamping tlie country. Tho real cause^of recent.high prices, as ajiyone who knows th,e; facts will at once admit,* is the tremendous''aud unjustified rise in tlie ccst of grain and pollard during'the. fourteen months, 1914-15, after the declaration of war. This quite abnormal rise in feed and the low price for eggs obtaining then ruined many poultrykeepers, the bulk of the country's fowls (even pullets) were sent to the. butcher. Now, during a renewed building up of •the industry, there is a slight niomenI tary shortage and a period of higher I prices.' No wonder. It was then, and against 'those arbitrary prices of hen i J,.ed that we should have heard the inelo-

dious voice of "Chelsea Bun" and the "suffering general public" in. protest, but they did hot trouble. Briefly, " C.B.s " belated remedy now is a flood of Chinese eggs, ■ because they are cheap. Well, apart from tho inscrutable mystery •of the constituents of Celestial egg . meat, we have these important points to consider : Ist, the injustice done to.our.own poultrykeepers, who are just recovering from ii. trying setback—a setback due to causes which neither the authorities, the general, public, nor the pastrycooks attempted to check, and not due to, poultrymen themselves. 2nd, the' Chinesc: egg producer gets his poultry-feed from cheap lands, cheap labour at a ridi; culously low cost. But the Dominion egg man pays from 5s to 8s a bushel for his grain, due to higher cost of production, boomed land values, and ■•high middlemen's profits. Importing Chinese eggs is equivalent to importing cheap Chinese grain, against local farmers producing under the above heavy handicaps. Were it possible or advisable to import grain at half the local cost, the price' of ■ eggs would, of course, be reduced by 50 per cent. But then " C.8." would haye to put cotton-wool about his ears to tone' down the discordant choruses of New: Zealand grain farmers' protests against unfair competition. To expect New Zealand poulti'ykeepers to feed high-priced local grain and yet* compete successfully, against the cheap Chinese egg is unjust, Not only unjust, it is stupid.—l am, etc., H. LEGER. 26th September.