SURPLUS VEGETABLES FOR STOCK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21900, 19 December 1945, Page 4

SURPLUS VEGETABLES FOR STOCK

TIP to a point satisfaction can he expressed with the explanation given by the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. B. Roberts, oi the methods‘adopted in the disposal of vegetables grown.under contract for the United States forces in the Pacific. It is well known that the unexpectedly early ending of the war has caused problems which might not have been so acute had victory been foreseen as a more steadily approaching certainty. The Minister’s statement on the use of surplus vegetables to. feeding stock, however, is one that should have been made ong a o-o He admitted the existence of a misunderstanding °n t.i whole subject of responsibility for disposal and made special reference to the view of the United States Join Purchasing boat d that, if produce is urgently necessary for cattle, food, then it n worth some payment by the farmers who want it. It is “ alcl escape the conclusion that the misunderstanding has been due to Government’s failure to explain the position clearly when the prohjem of the surplus was first encountered and perhaps,, also, lo faulty liaison between the Government and the United States Boaul. All that the farmer critics have been sure about is the wa that has been' going on. Large areas of mature cabbage crops arc reported to have been ploughed in by direction Irom the Joint Purchasing Board and it was only natural that, with stock sho t of food in the present dry season, complaints of m u wasite should bc strongly expressed. The attitude towards Amc lean policy, moreover, would hardly be modified by presumably authen ic stories of wholesale wastage m other directions—the destiuctio of epuipment and stores on Pacific island bases and even m occupied zone of Germany. . , - •. f . f| 1(1 There is no doubt that farmers m need of stock feed Lorn the surplus crops would always have been ready to pay any reasonSTS. asked for it or ’to submit to . .nimble. compensation. “Something for. nothing has no.part philosophy. From long experience they have learned expect, it. ——