TEA RATIONING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24949, 23 June 1942, Page 2

TEA RATIONING

INEQUALITY APPARENT INFANT AND ADULT NEEDS (Special) AUCKLAND, June 22 The extent of the inequality of the distribution of tea brought about by giving coupons to children and adults alike was illustrated by a merchant. Many stores, he said, were selling more tea since the introduction of consumer rationing than they had done before, while others were selling less. , A case was quoted of eight stores which in the past three weeks had satisfied themselves that all their registered sugar customers were also redeeming their tea coupons at the same stores. Multiplying the permitted 2oz of tea by the number of books which customers had registered, sales of tea in a rationing period would be 40 per cent greater than before rationing.. The "localities of these stores were significant. They were all in newlyopened suburbs, where the proportion of babies is noticeably higher than in older-settled districts. A ration of 2oz a head a week was equal to 6.51 b a year, said the merchant. In the past, the average annual consumption had been 6.81 b a head of population. The European and Maori population of New Zealand totalled 1,640,900, of whom 389,500 were children under 14 years. That meant that one-quafter of the population was under 14, and now, with many men overseas, the proportion of children to adults would be even higher.

In the past, four persons had consumed together 27.21 b of tea a year, but one of the four was a child, so that the adult consumption would have been nearly 9.11 b. Against that, the present ration for one adult holding one ration book was 6.51 b, which showed how heavily the scale was loaded against the home which included no young children. A married couple with two young children could draw total rations of'26lb a year, or 131 b for each adult, whereas the adult in a home without young children was clown on the 6.51 b ration. The result was to double possible consumption for some people while reducing others by onethird.