Kaikohe’s Welcome To Food Mission Leader

Northern Advocate, 17 March 1944, Page 5

Kaikohe’s Welcome To Food Mission Leader

(Special) KAIKOHR. This Day. Orsanisort at short notice, a f?ntherinj? of between 150 and 200 people heard the leader of the United Kingdom fond mission (Mr. AY. Banltos Amery) describe the conditions of diet imposed by the dictates of war on the population of Britain and make ;( spirited appeal to farmers in the district to produce more food. ••Alt’. Churchill said 1944 wotilcl be. a year of military climax; it will also prove a year of crisis in the food situation in Birtain,” he said. “We seek merely to maintain, not to increase our present iatone of meat and dairy produce. In all countries —Australia, Canada and the United States included —production of those commodities has fallen. New Zealand is not alone in that respect.” Saving lie had come from “a pnkeha island in the North Sea to . the isle of Aotearoa,” Mr. Amery outlined the factors in the survival of Britain's people through five winters of blockade. Tless had let slip that Hitler planned rather to relv on a food blockade than on an invasion. Britain was not yet on her knees hut she had had —and was having—a bard struggle since two-thirds of her peacetime food supplies wore imported. Country for Production Outlining the farmers’ part in foodboosting. lie said 6,000,000 acres of pasture lands had been ploughed by 100.000 tractors in three years of'war. More i'enlands had been drained in nine months than Mussolini had drained in Italy in nine years. Agricultural workers, right from the start, had been kept on the land in spite even of military demands, and this policy had helped to solve the land manpower problem. Crops had been grown in hack gardens, in parks, vacant areas, golf courses and bombed-out city sections. Farmers were advised and controlled by local county war agricultural committees, to whom much of the credit belonged. Spirited questioning of the speaker followed his address. In answers lie said food parcels to England should contain canned fruit, meat, fish, cheese, jam and milk and eggs, lemons treated with vaseline —but no sweets, coffee nr tea, the latter were not so urgently needed. . In answer as to how much more butter would ensure Britain's ration of 2 ozs. weekly. Mr. Amery said that 10,000 tons more from Australia and New Zealand would do it. The meeting was presided over by the chairman of the Kaikohe Town Board (.Ur. G. S. Penney). Introductory speakers were the Dominion organiser of the Maori,, Women’s Institutes (Mrs. Johnson), the chairman of the Kaikohe Primary Production Council (Mr. FI. F. Guy), and Mr. Eru Pon. for the Maori race. At the close of the meeting, a motion of thanks to Mr. Amery was passed, together with an assurance that farmers would produce the maximum of food. A supper and conversazione followed.