EGGS AND THE BLACK MARKET

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 5, 8 January 1944, Page 4

EGGS AND THE BLACK MARKET

According to a message from Christchurch, black marketing in eggs has reached serious proportions in the Canterbury egg marketing district and drastic action is threatened against offenders. When a desirable and essential food commodity is in short supply control measures, involving a system of at least partial centralisation, are inevitable, and those who endeavour from selfish motives to circumvent the regulations must take the consequences. When laws are made they must be observed. At the same time the authorities should not rely entirely upon compulsion and more compulsion for a remedy. They should inquire whether the flouting of the regulations may not be due in a measure to faults in the system of control. It may be that the regulations are too cumbersome and too restrictive. Justifiable complaints have been made in the past about inequalities in supply brought about by weaknesses in the system of distribution. For instance, not long ago people in some districts—Wellington was one—were virtually deprived of eggs while those in other districts had a surplus. Again, there were cases of eggs being sent to a central market and then being returned to their point of origin for sale, involving waste of time, transport, and money. Not only was this plainly uneconomic, but it I probably gave rise to complaints of ;staleness. A system of rigid control can only be said to be entirely satisfactory when it gives the public the

service to which they are entitled— an equitable share of available supplies. Can it be said that the system of distributing eggs has stood up to this test? Breaches of the law must be dealt with, but it would be better to overhaul the system of control in an endeavour to remove possible causes of breaches. The public are quick to resent forms of control which result in inequalities, and it is possible that the black market operations of which complaint is made are in part a symptom of that resentment rather than a deliberate flouting of the law. In recent months the egg position has shown considerable improvement, but it may be that public resentment of cumbersome and restrictive control measures still remains. This resentment can best be overcome by another overhaul of the system.