FOOD CONSUMPTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 5

FOOD CONSUMPTION

THE SLUMP YEARS

Combating statements made by the Government about the failure of the last Government during the slump years, Mr. K. J. Holyoake (National, Motueka) said far too much had been made of the alleged inability of the people to secure their own products for consumption. The official Year Book showed that the consumption of dairy products in New Zealand had been increasing before the Labour Government came into office; it showed that there had been more mutton consumed in New Zealand during the slump years than ever before.

A Government member: It was very cheap. An Opposition member: Mutton is good food,

During the slump : years the consumption of flour had been only 2.16 per head of the population below the record for the country; flour consumption had declined during the last three years.

The Minister of Industries and Commerce: People will buy bread when they cannot afford to buy anything else.

That might be so, Mr. Holyoake said, but he was talking about flour arid that included bread, cake, biscuits, and all smallgoods. The Year Book also showed that more potatoes and onions had been consumed during the slump years and indicated that the loose talk about people not being able to get what they produced was simply for vote-catching purposes.