Shortage Of Potatoes

Northern Advocate, 13 August 1942, Page 2

Shortage Of Potatoes

GENERALLY speaking, the civilian population of New Zealand will not be able to eat potatoes during the next three months. This is the outcome of a combination of unfortuitous circumstances.

The Minister for Supplies, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, explained last evening that a survey of supplies of potatoes in the Dominion, coupled with the impossibility of securing shipments from overseas, showed that the demands of the armed forces and the civilian population could not be met. It had therefore become necessary to ration existing supplies for use by the armed forces and public institutions, such as hospitals and old people’s homes. This rationing system will exist until the new season’s potatoes become available. The lack of potatoes will be acutely felt, but it is one of the fortunes of war, and should accordingly be accepted with the best possible grace. It should also impel every kitchen gardener to make the utmost use of any seed potatoes he may be able to secure, and to plant to maximum capacity any ground of which he may be possessed. This, of course, applies to vegetables generally. If every household makes an effort to become self-supporting so far as vegetables are concerned, inability to purchase potatoes—an inability that may prove not to be absolute—will be robbed of much of its inconvenience.