AUSTRIAN PRIVATIONS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7914, 4 August 1917, Page 1

AUSTRIAN PRIVATIONS.

FOOD SO SCARCE THAT MONEY IS VALUELESS. Food in Austria, if we are to believe the Vienna “Arbeiter Zeitung,” has gone beyond price, and is no longer purchasable. “A multitude of young people,” the paper continues, “devote themselves to getting up theatrical performances for the benefit of the very poor. Crowds of charitable persons flock to these entertainments and pay their money. The booking clerks swim in bills, the ladies of the committee revel in delight. But the poor get nothing but money, for there is nothing to get. The food is not to be had.

“Let the entrance money be paid in potatoes, meat, butter, sugar, eggs, peas, beans, turnips, even in jam and other preserves. Fish is inadvisable, as it does not keep, “The booking office receives added importance. A tanle and a plate would be no longer all that is necessary. There would be necessary large storerooms. A difficulty, however, would arise in the valuation of articles. For example, how much would a ham be worth compared with a peck of peas? “The programme on which the prices are printed <,would grow enormously in volume. First row orchestra: A box of sardines, or a pound of sausage, or half a fowl, or two pounds of potatoes, or three pounds of peas.

“Or there might be simplifications. For example, there might be a potato evening at which all seats were paid for in potatoes. There might be a butter, aji egg, or a ham evening. Tips in restaurants and elsewhere might also be paid in kind. If the waiter is attentive a potato would reward him, for extra service two potatoes, or if that seems extravagant, say, a bjg potato and a small one.”