“NOT LAND OF PLENTY”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23279, 15 August 1945, Page 4

“NOT LAND OF PLENTY”

U.S.A. Feels The War Meat The Most Severe Shortage America is not the land of unlimited pienty it is generally believed to be; wartime shortages, although not as drastic as in otner of the Allied countries, have been causing inconveniences, to housewives particularly, for the last few ?ears. "Aleaikss Tuesday” is observed throughout the nati. n. Mr* I’. E. Dunn, oi Detroit. loid a representative of "t he Timaru Herald," and the ration allows onh one nome-cocked meat meal a fortnight—and her <oun>.ryme>i were good meal-eater-, even by New Zealand’s high standard, she said. Fitty blue points a month is the ration for meat, putter and cheese — butter is 24 points per lb. and beef is very high m point value, althoue.ii mutton and lamb, the less popular meats, are tower. Processed foods, that is. tinned meats and the other canned foods tor which the United States is well-known, arc also rationed, being bought on blue points. The ration is 100 blue points a month—peaches are 80 points a can and pineapple is also expensive on points, but Mrs Dunn said she could scarcer/ remember v.hen she had seen pineapple last. Spirits are also rationed, each State having its own liquor laws. In Michigan, the ration is one quart a month for each person over 21. but in Illinois it is more and mere is a heavv traffic across the border. The rationing docs not apply to hotels or night clubs, where patrons are usuailv able to order as much as they want, a Though Scotch has sometimes been short, she explained. CertaiiTv the gaiety of American night life had not suffered by the liquor rationing or by the induction of complete dance band - in'o the special services section of the Armed Forces. Inere is no clothes rationing in the United States. “Gas” Sharts' ,c Ten gallons a month for the private motorist, with suitable prevision for essential motoring* seems a generous petrol ration compared with that in New Zealand, but even so most families have had to dispose of one or two cars for lack of sufficient “•? as.” In Detroit, the home oi Chrysler and Ford motors, high school boys drive cars to school as children here ride bicycles—they are parked side by side for blocks in the vicinity of the school and many of the children have to walk almost as far from their parked cars to the school as they would from home. Petrol works up in Drice in the States furthest from the Texas .wells: in Detroit it is the equivalent of about 1 9. "There is no need for conscription or manpower control to get the girls and women into defence jobs: th? wages are so high that thev automatically go there." Mrs Dunn said when commenting on the conversion of Detroit’s famous motor factories to war production. No cars for civilian use have

been manufactured in the U.S.A, lor some considerable time. “Chrysler is a tank arsenal and Ford is now an aeroplane tactorx. both working three eight-hour shifts.” "They just dance.” she replied when asked if lunch-hour concerts for factory were as popular in America as they are reported to be m Britain. The Wonder Auto-mat The auto-mat —one of America s inventions which has most fascinated Dominion servicemen—is a development of the stamp machine from which almost anything, from a club sandwich to a hot dinner can be extracted by putting the appropriate coin in the slot. The leaning auto-mat is on 35th Street in New York where there is a seemingly eternal queue towards the 50ft row oi machines, Mrs Dunn continued. This self-service way ot having a meal was much more convenient than cafes and restaurants for office and shop workers. There was a touch of homesickness m her voice when she described the elaborate sandwiches and salads which all Americans relish. On her way to New Zealand Mrs Dunn spent eight days in Honolulu, staying at the Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach. There are no welcoming lets for wartime visitors and Honolulu is "just all Navy" she said. There were plenty of souvenirs in the shops but because of a self-imposed curfew the natives close everything at 4 p.m Dinner is off m the hotels at 7 p.m. and no meals can be obtained after that; all transport r f ops at 10 p.m. Mrs Dunn married Sub-Lieutenant T. E. Dunn, son of Mr and Mrs H T Dunn, in February, before lie returned to New Zealand after three rears overseas with the Fleet Air Arm. He was in training at Detroit for several months, also in Florida, where he met his wife Thev intend to make their home in Timaru.