WHAT WE EAT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4557, 8 April 1942, Page 4

WHAT WE EAT

CHANGES IN DIET EFFECT OF WAR ON OUR FOODSTUFFS There is no danger of a food shortage in the Dominion, but the daily diet may have to be considerably varied—changed in some respects and limited in others—because the available shipping may not be able to maintain average importations of commodities. Tea is the outstanding necessity of a New Zealander. The annual consumption per head has remained fairly steady at 71b, and imports even during the war period have been satisfactory—nearly 12,000,0001 b in 1940, and 13,185,0001 b in 1941. These figures are actually in excess of pre-war years. The sources of our tea, considered in line with the current war cables, are worth analysing. The latest details of this nature are for the year 1938: Ceylon, 10,877,8001 b; India, 219,9101 b; China, 53,9001 b. There was a small contribution from the Netherlands East a few years ago, but nothing has come from that area during the war. New Zealand merchants recently instituted a rationing scheme in the distribution of tea to check any tendency to panic buying, the public evidently having come to the conclusion that because Australia had introduced a severe measure of rationing, similar action was inevitable in the Dominion. It was stated at Auckland yesterday, however, that tea stocks in the Dominion were at the present time very good. Australia had been buying very largely from Java, while the bulk of teas imported into New Zealand came from Ceylon. There would possibly be a big cut in tea importations if Japanese action brought about a blockade of the coasts of India and Ceylon, but the immediate outlook was that tea supplies of the usual quality were not in jeopardy. The annual consumption of sugar by New Zealanders is 1121 b of the refined type per head. The great bulk is manufactured in the country, but the raw material is imported. In 1938 we required 1,490,647 cwt of raw sugar and the principal contributor was the Netherlands East Indies, with a total of 1,311,721 cwt. Cuba provided 156,830 cwt, though a few years earlier it had sent us over 600,000 cwt. The Fijian proportion was 21,833 cwt. Another imported commodity of consequence, salt, comes ■ from countries in Allied occupation:—United Kingdom, 487,406 cwt; Australia, 272,844 cwt; Canada, 17,562 cwt. New Zealand has occasionally obtained salt from the United States. Australia provides us with more rice than any other country. Our annual consumption of 6Jlb per head is provided thus:—Australia, 17,312 cwt; Siam, 10,579 cwt; Burma, 10,407 cwt; China, 8997 cwt; India, 4765 cwt. The average consumption of tobacco per head every year is nearly lOSlb, and greatest sources of raw tobacco, for manufacturing in New Zealand, are: —United States, nearly 3,000,000 lb., with the Netherlands East Indies contributing a modest 20001 b. and the Philippines 30001 b,