The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1943 NEW ZEALAND CAN HELP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 277, 23 November 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1943 NEW ZEALAND CAN HELP

J\jE\V ZEALAND learned recently that it would be required to contribute 8,000,000 dollars towards the initial expenditure required io finance the United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief Administration in its plans for the stricken countries after the war. The report of the conference at Atlantic City, United States, will, when made available, give greater detail of requirements, but it is not too early for New Zealand to devote some thought to the problem, for probably the filling of orders from Europe may coineide with the carrying of the war into the heart of Japaneseoccupied territory in the Pacific. Thus this Dominion will have two major tasks in hand at the one time. The needs of the liberated countries are certain to include

food, livestock and seeds. Food will be needed to ward off the starvation which has already carried off its victims in hundreds of thousands. The unfortunate occupied countries have been plundered of food and livestock on a colossal scale by the Germans, and the replacement of cattle and sheep will be one of the major problems. Agriculture, too, has had its setbacks, and seeds in gigantic quantities will have to be sent to Europe. These needs will have to be studied—already a good deal *of thought has been devoted to that aspect—-and in that way New Zealand may be enabled to make a very valuable contribution on a scale comparable to that of her manpower on land, at sea and in the air. The farmers, in spite of their frustrated efforts in many directions, will again be found willing to follow a well-directed lead. To supply the plundered countries with livestock after the day of liberation will be one of the first concerns of the Allied Nations, and one recommendation is that utility stock for immediate production, together with pedigree breeding stock, should first be rushed to the Continent. As Britain will have little surplus of utility animals. America and the British Dominions may be expected to establish committees to organise and have ready supplies for this purpose, Britain supplying pedigree stock. First priority is to be given milk, with pigs next on the list, as their rate of growth enables rapid stocking up. Many cattle breeds in Europe, particularly in the Balkans, are of the dual purpose type, milch eowj being used for drawing carts and ploughs. As no similar breeds abound in Allied countries, the need may be supplied by the provision of tractors as well as dairy types of cattle. It is obvious that Britain can supply only a small quota of the milking cows urgently needed, and New Zealand should be able to step in with a very useful contribution, provided plans are made early enough. Artificial insemination, already highly developed in Russia. should greatly accelerate the breeding programme in Europe, and with food foundation stock there should be a rapid building up of herds and flocks. Meat can be poured into Europe while on-the-hoof supplies are being replenished, and milk products will also be supplied, but this country’s finest gesture can be made in dairy cows.

If New Zealand’s “Dig for Victory” campaign manages to make the desired progress in spite of delays—some unavoidable, as for instance those through unfavourable weather, and some exasperating through human and official failings—a large contribution can be made in the shape of vegetables, canned or dehydrated. Prodigious quantities of these were to have been provided during the current, season for the balanced diet requirements of our own and Allied troops in the Pacific and overseas. These are probably being grown by commercial gardeners and the new Army vegetable farms, but there is no reason why the civilian population should expect to have plenty while orders are unfilled. The small consumer should be invited and encouraged to grow his own. and he should be shown the reason why he must do so. No one can measure what further demands may be made when the campaign in the Pacific theatre of war gets tinder way in full strength. Vegetables grown in New Zealand for all forces in the Pacific instead of transporting American-grown food, save shipping space, and if every owner of a patch of ground grows vegetables for his own and his neighbour’s use, rail and road haulage will be saved. At the same time a foundation will be laid for a surplus for the liberated countries after the war.

New Zealand’s seed-growing industry is much larger than most people imagine, investigations showing that there is a surplus enabling all demands to be.met and leaving a considerable quantity for export. Theijs is a considerable body of farmers who grow nothing else but seed, and were it not. for the man-power problem they would doubtless be doubling or trebling their output in view of the need. It. is not generally known that from 20.000 to 30.000 acres of peas alone are sown for seed production. The weight in food returns affects the export value of various seeds. A quarter of a pound of cabbage seed will sow an acre, and so will less than four pounds of onion seed. If 60,0001 b. of onion seed were sent overseas it Would sow 20,000 acres, producing some 200,000 tons of food. The same result 'would be achieved by the export, of other small, seeds which give heavy food returns, and, owing to the prolific nature of peas and beans, to these seeds also, especially where Iho pods form food. Certainly New Zealand’s export seed industry, unobtrusively built up in recent years, is capable of greater expansion, thus assisting in solving one of the greatest of post-war problems.