BACON AND EGGS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23276, 20 February 1939, Page 8

BACON AND EGGS

Orange juice and strange cereals have not yet supplanted in New Zealand the traditional British breakfast of bacon and eggs, but the continued popularity of the dish is being threatened —although probably only temporarily—by high egg prices. From Dunedin comes the report that consumption of eggs has dropped by 33 1-3 per cent and that a sympathetic decline has occurred in the demand for bacon. Of such strength are the gastronomic and economic links between the two. In Auckland at present hen eggs are 4d to 5d a dozen dearer than they were this time last year. All efforts to improve the standard of grading and to ensure that an A grade egg weighs a full eighth of an ounce more than formerly are not likely to counteract high prices as a deterrent to consumption. Various reasons have been advanced for the present position. One is the lateness of the flush of the tomato season, delaying the appearance on the breakfast table of the alternative dish of tomatoes and bacon and creating an abnormal demand for a reduced egg supply. The other main factor is that of production costs. It was stated in the Waikato last month that costs were perhaps higher than at any other time in the history of the industry and that only to some extent was this compensated for by higher prices. However, it was also pointed out that if the Government had inflated egg prices above the Australian level to the same proportion as it has inflated the price of wheat, eggs to-day would cost twice as much. The Government's wheat guarantee and its egg marketing control schemes go hand in hand and so far as the housewife is concerned the result is that she is being forced to pay through high egg prices another hidden levy toward the financial aid which ir. being lavished on the wheatgrowers.