N.Z. FOOD RATIONING

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1943, Page 3

N.Z. FOOD RATIONING

Further Moves Likely STRONG OFFICIAL HINTS.

P.A. WELLINGTON, May 15. There have been plain official hints that New Zealand will be required to reduce butter consumption shortly. It is also evident from cabled reports 'that the United States, Canada and Australia are concerned over the high consumption of meat by the local population, in view of the necessity to maintain adequate supplies for the fighting forces and the people of the United Kingdom, who are under severe rationing. If New Zealanders were put on rationing for meat,, butter and cheese they have so spacious a margin on their average consumption that they could spare a good deal for export without reaching the danger-point of malnutrition. We share _ with Australia the reputation of being the biggest meat eaters in the world. Contrast the New Zealand meat consumption of 252 lb. a head annually with the English war-time allowance of a shilling’s worth a week. There are occasional releases in England of canned meats and fish, and the Homeland is possibly better off than ourselves in respect of canned fish. Distribution is on a points system—l 6 points a month—and the whole allowance ,would be needed for a pound tin of salmon or an equal weight of sardines. However, herrings or pilchards, which are not usually imported, are avialable for 12 points. Imported canned meats require 16 points, but those prepared in Eire or the United Kingdom are marked at 8 points a month New Zealand’s butter consumption a head is 421 b per annum, Australia’s 33 Ib., Canada’s 32.1 b., and the United Kingdom’s in peace time 251 b. now down to 61 lb. per annum. The differences in diet of various countries is exemplified in the case of I cheese, of which the New Zealand annual consumption is only half that of Britain’s normal of 9 lb. a head, now curtailed to 61 lb. per annum.

Until the rationing system changed the demand, pork was a very large item .of diet in the United Kingdom. It averaged 42 lb. a head. New Zealanders consume just over half that quantity, namely 22 lb. of pork, and 10 lb. of bacon a head each year.

The conclusion to be reached from these contrasts is that New Zealanders could spare something from their daily diet in order to increase exports to the fighting services and the British population without much inconvenience, certainly with no risk of hunger.

TIMBER WORKERS PROTEST. At a large meeting of timber workers held in Kumara on Thursday night, a strong protest was made against the rationing of butter as suggested by the Prime Minister. It was stated that the proposed ration was too little for the requirements of the timber workers, whose work is the worst in New Zealand, men being required to work out in all weathers, and the nature of their work meant a large amount of cribs being taken to work, thus there was need for much more butter than other workers.