“TRIVIAL GESTURE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 April 1946, Page 4

“TRIVIAL GESTURE”

FOOD COUPON-SAVING CAMPAIGN Although the Taranaki Education Board does not object to a gesture of sacrifice in surrendering meat and butter coupons to provide food for Britain, it regards it as too trivial a way to deal with such an important problem. The board agreed to a request from the New Plymouth Famine Emergency Campaign Committee asking for the assistance of school pupils in collecting cards whereon coupons could be placed, but some members were candid in their criticism of lack of major action by the Government.

“This seems rather a farce when freezing works are chock-a-block full of meat,” said Mr A. E. Williams. Mr W .J. Polson, M.P., said ships were being held up because in Hawke’s Bay tens of thousands of lambs were not being frozen because of the 40-hour week. Yet trivial little things for children to collect were distributed in order to make a gesture that something was being done. The problem needed dealing with in a different way, and if the Government had any “guts” it would deal with it.

Mr D. Ward urged that freezing works be kept going 80 hours a week if possible. Thousands of cattle were .losing condition because they could not be taken to the works. While he did not approve of the system, anything that could be done should be done, said Mr L. T. Aylward, who added that the Government had not reduced parcel postage despite the fact that hundreds of people were sending parcels to strangers. These people were not getting any support for the sacrifice they were making.