Black Market in Eggs in Canterbury

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 5

Black Market in Eggs in Canterbury

CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 7.

Black marketing in eggs Las reached serious proportions in the Canterbury egg marketing district, according to the chairman of directors of the Central Egg Floor (Mr. C. Ferguson). On a turnover involving over one million dozen eggs in twenty weeks to the end of December last, the Central Floor showed a drop in supplies of 150,000 dozen eggs compared with the corresponding period of 1942. Those eggs, he said, were obviously being so’d through illegal channels. * Actually, the extent of the black marketing, saSd Mr. Ferguson, was even greater, because the eggs received in 1942 did not represent anything like the total that should have come through the Central Egg Floor. It was estimated that an additional 200,000 dozen eggs were not being marketed through the regulation channels.

“The position has now become so serious that the Internal Marketing Division has decided to take drastic action against those engaged in the black market,” said Mr. Ferguson. From Monday, he added, all eggs distributed on the Christchurch market through legal channels would be stamped with the initials of the Central Egg Floor. This meant that traders in eggs not bearing the stamp would be liable to prosecution and their eggs confiscated. It war the intention to change the colour of the stamp on the eggs each week. That would enable the Central Floor also to cope with complaints about eggs boin* stale.