EGGS AND THE PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1943, Page 4

EGGS AND THE PUBLIC

Public irritation over both quantity and quality of eggs offered for sale for some months past is beyond all doubt well justified. The causes of the shortage of eggs have been explained not altogether satisfactorily, when supplies are found to vary so much according to locality, and for the moment there seems little remedy in prospect until production is increased and distribution more equitably managed. But there is no excuse whatever for foisting bad eggs on the public, which has an inalienable right to receive sound foodstuffs for money paid. Responsibility for the supply oi the bad eggs should be definitely sheeted home. The Wellington Master Grocers' Association, in an official statement, refuses to allow the blame to rest on the retailers. The grocers deny the assertion of the Minister of Marketing that the quality of the eggs supplied to the retail trade was firstclass and declare emphatically that they were unfit for human consumption when received. The grocers ask certain pertinent questions of the Internal Marketing Department and present resolutions designed to secure better service. With the suggestion that all eggs be controlled by the Department throughout New Zealand, and another that the district regulations permitting the producer to sell direct to the public, we cannot agree. The effect would almost certainly be to" reduce the available supply and make matters worse than they are. But there is definitely a case for compensating both the customer and the retailer for bad eggs bough 1 and sold under the conditions imposed on the retail trade, by higher authorityThere is only one way to stop this, and that is to make the organisation responsible bear the loss. That is a first step. Then, to prevent a recurrence there should be the searching inquiry that the Master Grocers' Association asks for.