IMPORTED EGG YOLKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16374, 31 October 1916, Page 5

IMPORTED EGG YOLKS.

Sir,— self-contradictory opinions of a " Leading Wellington Pastrycook," published in the Hkr.ild, ere calculated, unI less refuted, to injure a growing ana imEortant industry, and a deserving and ardworking class of settler. After j insinuating that local poultry farmers cannot supply the demand, ho states that eggs are being offered at a low rate to pastrycooks bo as to inflate the price of the balance. This implied charge 'of ■ exploitation is almost ludicrous. Auclci land Province alone could easily supply I the demand from the whole of New Zea- ; land if a fair price was offered. In | Auckland, at any rate, the prices are fixed by the buyers, not by the producer, who has to be content with what the Dairy i Produce Committee chooses to offer, j Imagine the expression on tho face of Mr. I Virtue if. when he opened his Friday's j Herald he found that the Bread i and Tart Committee had fixed the price of I flour at £10 a ton, or the manam of I the Colonial Sugar Company reading in his breakfast Herat, that, the Jam and | Toffee Committee had fixed the price of sugar at 10s per 701b bag. The workers ! in the poultry industry do not exploit-— I they cannot. From the political economic i standpoint, the importation of eeg yolks J and desiccated whites is f crime against ! the State. From the public health point I jof view, let us be candid. Why say egg j yolks Imported from the East? They | come from China, and China is perhaps 1 the most insanitary country in the world. Tf this Chinese yolk business is stopped, it. is not too late in the season for New Zealand poultrymen to produce an extra million chickens, which would mean another fifty million eegs next year- In conclusion, tho writer suspects one who imports voiles produced hv Chinese labour would bo onlv too willine if permitted to import the Chinese labour to make the pastry as well. W.H.E. Swanson.