The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES." GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1946. DAIRY PRODUCTION NEEDS STIMULUS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22011, 3 May 1946, Page 2

The Gisborne Herald. IN WHICH IS INCORPORATED “THE TIMES." GISBORNE, FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1946. DAIRY PRODUCTION NEEDS STIMULUS

rgM-JE light rationing of; Gisborne’s milk supply threatens to he more of a problem for the producers and the vendors than for the average consumer. The reassuring statements made by Mr Goodson, chairman of the Vendors’ Association, and Mr Somerton, chairman of the Producers’ Association, indicate that families which most urgently need an adequate milk supply will not suffer unduly. In the absence of any authority to whom the producers and vendors can turn for guidance, it would seem that the organisations representing them are faced with the responsibility of working out an equitable system of distribution in addition to a temporary slump in business owing to the shortage.

The circumstances causing the latest embarrassment to domestic well-being are too well-known to make reiteration worth-while. An unofficial rationing scheme necessitated by an abnormal demand for milk, coupled with the dry-season falling off in supplies has already been introduced by the vendors in New Plymouth, chief town in a dairying province, and no doubt in several other districts. Some of the eastern districts of Australia are much worse off than any areas in New Zealand. There the trouble has arisen from flood sufferings and loss of stock as well as from the scarcity of feed. The main problem in the Dominion is how to increase production, generally recognised as a sheer economic necessity if the country is to cater fully for its own needs and at the same time increase exports to hungry countries overseas. As an immediate measure, the campaign for the voluntary surrender of coupons must be supported. It would be idle to suppose, however, that this scheme is satisfactory from the semi-permanent and long-term viewpoint. The yield from one good cow added to a herd is worth many coupons in the course of a year and, while voluntary rationing should continue, every endeavour should be made, with encouragement from the Government, to build up the Dominion’s cow population. Among the methods of increasing production suggested by men who have studied the subject carefully are a reduction in the taxation of farmers, an improved supply of fertiliser and increased attention to rural housing and farm labour difficulties. The census has disclosed an unfortunate drift of people from the counties to the cities and larger towns, which means, in many cases, that small farming and its current problems have been abandoned for what may be a more lucrative urban avocation. One thing certain is that the forty-hour week, and still loss the five-day week, cannot be observed on a dairy farm. On a place carrying an average herd 40 hours, spread over a week, would leave little time for any positive activity save the actual milking. The farmer, and most likely some of his family, would have to toil twice as long to attend to the host of other farm duties and chores. To meet existing and prospective conditions, farm work generally will have to be made more attractive in order to check the drift of workers to a short-week occupation. This means that farming must be put on a more profitable basis so that the man on the land, in the payment of wages and in various other ways, can compete on an equal footing on the labour market. Obviously no farmer already hard-worked, is going to make a serious effort to increase his herd unless he can be sure of getting help in attending to the augmented numbers.