EGG RATIONING IN SIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24304, 19 June 1942, Page 2

EGG RATIONING IN SIGHT

Powers to control the marketing land distribution of eggs have been taken by the Government. It is more than likely, therefore, that eggs will be the first locally-produced foodstuff to which rationing will apply. ]n a country like New Zealand there should be plenty of eggs and there would be if producers were not discouraged by the high price of poultry feed and small producers by the difficulty of obtaining supplies. Scarce and dear eggs are part of the price the whole of New Zealand pays to Canterbury wheatgrowers. The Government should attack this problem from the positive rather than the negative angle, ; from the production rather than the I distribution end. The Minister should by practical measures seek to help the large poultry farmer and at the same time encourage the small producer and the suburban resident. As it is, he is setting out to control scarcity and will probably create a greater dearth. Control and compulsory pooling will probably force the small producer out of the business. At any rate such 1

was th.e chief consequence of egg control in Britain. There were fewer eggs to control. The Minister's purpose is unexceptionable—to ensure that those most in need of eggs receive them. But his method—the method that has made several other commodities scarce and dear —is likely to depress production. To introduce a cumbersome and costly system of distribution and to start rationing a common item of diet in a food-producing country amount to confessions of administrative bankruptcy and lack of constructive, productive ideas.