N.Z. Must Produce Foodstuffs

Northern Advocate, 19 February 1940, Page 4

N.Z. Must Produce Foodstuffs

[Special to “Northern Advocate”! TE PUKE, This Day. Mr. F. W. Doidge, M.P., speaking at the opening of the Te Puke Show on Saturday, said that Britain’s most urgent need was foodstuffs. Rigid rationing was now in progress in England, and it was significant that already from the ranks of Britain’s mighty army of more than a million men the agricultural workers were being combed out and sent back to the farms. “Here in New Zealand,” Mr. Doidge said, “the Government pleads for increased primary production in order that we may fulfill our pledges to Britain. . Onus on Farmers. “There are farmers who say it cannot be done under present conditions. If conditions stand in the way those conditions must be altered. “There are farmers who say that a three years’ plan is necessary. The farmer cannot grass and' fence and build and increase his herds overnight. If that is true, then let us begin planning right away, since the war may last three years or longer.

“In an effort to speed up production, the Government has set up production councils all over the country. So far they are seemingly little more than a butt for critics, but they could be made effective if the farmers got behind them. - “Farmers of experience, knowing the potentialities of a district, should get together, pool their ideas, and represent those ideas to the production council.”