EGG SHORTAGE

Evening Star, Issue 23861, 16 April 1941, Page 6

EGG SHORTAGE

VERY ACUTE AT MOMENT ILL-ADJUSTED MARKETING CONTROL There is an acute shortage of eggs in Dunedin at the present time, and such supplies as are reaching the market are mainly of medium and pullet grades. The spell of cold, wet weather has seriously affected laying on the part of older hens, and the advent of the moulding period has not encouraged these birds to make a stand against the cold. The weather has also affected the younger birds, and even pullet eggs are very scarce. The moulting and the weather are only two contributing factors to the shortage. Allegedly an even more important bearing on the situation is reflected in the high prices ruling in the North Island, and producers beyond the Dunedin area limit, who are not affected by the Internal Marketing Division’s control, are forwarding eggjs to the north as freely as supplies will permit. Because of this, Oamaru poultry-keepers in particular arc ignoring the local market, reaping the benefit of better values further north. In more normal circumstances, where the law of supply and demand fixes prices, the Oamaru men would be consigning sufficient eggs to Dunedin to prevent any shortage reaching a really acute stage, as it has just now. At the moment the prospects of immediate relief are not bright, for, according to the dictates of the Marketing Division, prices here cannot be increased without sanction of the Price Tribunal, and meanwhile that sanction is not forthcoming. If prices were increased more eggs would undoubtedly reach Dunedin. A further increase might be hard on some sections of tho public, but not everyone would be on inadequately short rations as is the case at present. What would appear to be the most logical thing to do, however, would be for tho Marketing Division to extend its control and to stabilise prices throughout the Dominion. Such control as exists at the moment is little short of ridiculous, and it seems small wonder that locally the department has earned the name of the Infernal Marketing Division. There should not be any “ free ” men who are able to sell how and where they please while another section is tied hands and feet and forced to sell in one market at values Which are obviously not in keeping with customary economic laws.