POTATOES PLENTIFUL IN BRITAIN

Inangahua Times, 22 December 1931, Page 4

POTATOES PLENTIFUL IN BRITAIN

With potatoes, even more than ' many o her things io life, it seems to be either a feast or a famine. In | Britain this year there is reported to ! •be- a great scarcity which cannot be ' elieved by importations from France inhere ihe crop is blighted. But last /ear and the year before potatoes vere so plentilul in Britain as scarcely to be worth the d gging and here has been no serious dearth since the War years. It was strange in 1916 and 1917 to observe the absurd valuation placed in Britain on the humble potato just because it was almost unobtainable. If fimiliarilv had previously bred contempt, scarcity begot fancy prices and tender affection. It was the same with white bread and sugar and other common articles of everyday use that normally are taken as a matter of course. That prompts the reflection whether we esteem too lightly much that we have in sighing after things out of our reach. Dr James Hight spoke the other day of the desirability of teaching elements of social science in New Zeal ind schools. It would certainly , amaze the juveniles and some of their i parems if a little economic history I were introduced and they came to ‘ under-iand how many things that we j to-day tskd for granted were lacking a century ago and how compara- j lively rich the poorest of us is by j comparison with the standards of 1831. It is true that discontent makes for progress but material progress does not make for coutem.