The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1934. THE TAVERN AND THE TEA-SHOP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 257, 30 October 1934, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1934. THE TAVERN AND THE TEA-SHOP

poRTY years ago a tea-shop was opened in Piccadilly. Very few chronicled the incident. Its significance to New Zealand, half a world away, was by no means apparent. Aet the incident was worthy of being written large, not only in the annals of Old London, but also in the history of young New Zealand as well. It was, in fact, the commencement of a fight, the fight between the tavern and the tea-shop. What was at the back of this challenge, and this fight? It was an appreciation on. the part of the people that beef and beer for the mid-day meal was not conducive to good health. A duel of diet was already on, and the opening of the Lyons’ teashop was but a sign that the battle had begun. The late T. P. O’Connor, referring to those times, wrote: “There was really scarcely a decent place in London for the poor man to get a decent meal in decent surroundings; on Sundays, foreigners and isolated citizens like myself, living in chambers, could not get any kind of a meal; I remember making my dinner of apples from a stall on a dreary Christmas Day.” In a brochure recently published by the firm of Lyons, it is stated that “the favourite meal on the 1894 tariff included steak-and-kidney pudding or pie. Chicken patties and mutton pies were popular. Potatoes (boiled only) were invariably included in the order. There were 66 items on the tariff; to-day a variety of approximately 155 is provided, as well as a complete soda fountain tariff. Two sweets only were served —applie pie and prunes and cream. Cheese was not on the menu. Salads were not served. There was no demand for them. (Compare this with the 500,000 salads—including egg mayonnaise and salmon mayonnaise—which were served daily in Lyons tea-shops during the heat wave this year.)” This change in the diet of the people of London should give New Zealand furiously to think, as the French say, for it indicates that when the frozen meat trade was enlarging a contrary movement was also going on; people instead of maintaining their habits of diet, were enlarging the variety of their foods. This has given to each unit a much less important place in the menu. Sooner or later this contraction of consumption in any one food —because of the demand for variety—must have made itself felt, quotas or no quotas. And all of this long time, New Zealand has gone gaily on producing meat, butter and cheese, and believing that there was an ever-expanding market for such products. The recapitulation of the largest catering firm in London should dispel that. idea, and bring home to the farmers of this Dominion the necessity for extending the. range of their products. Times have changed, and are still changing. What is needed is a close study of the trends of demand in the major markets where New Zealand produce is consumed.