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Local, Market Sales of Cheese for Year ended 31st March, 1943 U.S. Forces. 1942 lb. lb. lb. April .. .. .. 648,685 .. 648,685 May .. .. .. 876,014 .. 876,014 June .. .. .. 743,827 .. 743,827 July .. .. .. 483,338 58,800 542,138 August .. .. .. 563,725 59,000 622,725 September .. .. 634,066 57,500 691,566 October.. .. .. 679,307 60,000 739,307 November .. .. 887,584 59,000 946,584 December .. .. 777,101 57,500 834,601 1943 January.. .. .. 679,937 236,600 916,537 February .. .. 715,036 237,000 952,036 March .. .. .. 815,683 238,000 1,053,683 8,504,303 1,063,400 9,567,703 EGG MARKETING SECTION All wartime Administrations have found that eggs are the most difficult of the primary products to organize into steady, sufficient, and equitably-distributed supply. New Zealand's difficulty may be gauged from the fact that only 7,000,000 to 8,000,000 dozen of our total estimated annual production of 30,000,000 dozen pass through the controlled areas of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hawke's Bay, and it is from this small proportion that the Division has had to maintain priority deliveries to hospitals, young children, invalids, nursing mothers, shipping, and Armed Forces, while still maintaining a rationed distribution to civilians in the main centres. Producers in other areas have since elected to come under the Egg Marketing Emergency Regulations 1942 —namely, Tauranga, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, North and South Wairarapa, Blenheim, Timaru, and Invercargill. In these " emergency areas " surpluses have been created by directing all eggs into one central depot and rationing the local populations. These surpluses have then been forwarded to Wellington and Auckland for essential needs. Under the policy of stabilization it was not possible to generally increase egg-prices in order to attract eggs to market areas, which had been the past method of ensuring city supplies. In fact, in scattered country districts where prices, unpoliced, in some instances had risen as much as lOd. a dozen over previous years, this process has been reversed. Therefore a grant was made available from the War Expenses Account to pay freights and extra handling charges on eggs consigned to Wellington and Auckland, which ports were bearing the brunt of shipping and Armed Forces demands. At the same time a comprehensive Dominion-wide Price Order fixed prices in marketing areas and country areas at their near equivalents. As a result of discussions between the Division, the Department of Agriculture, the Building Controller, and the New Zealand Poultry Board, building-materials and cash advances were made available to encourage increased production. The 1943 season's production is unlikely to be much greater than that of 1942, but these measures taken should lead to a noticeable improvement in 1944—as the considerable sale of chicks already indicates. Nevertheless, the demand for egg and egg commodities will far exceed supply. To alleviate this position, egg-pulp manufacture in New Zealand will be kept to a minimum, and an arrangement has been made with the Australian Government for New Zealand to import 110 tons of egg-powder and 125,000 28 lb. tins of egg-pulp. The experiment of importing Australian eggs in shell was not, however, successful, owing largely to conditions in transit. Importations of egg jjroducts from Australia in 1942 comprised— Egg-pulp .. .. .. .. .. 71,000 28 lb. tins. Egg-powder .. .. .. .. 116 i tons bulk. 12 tons | lb. packets. Eggs in shell .. .. .. .. .. 5,402 cases each 30 dozen. Without these imports we could not have forwarded the following supplies :— Eggs and Egg-powder. Dozen. United States Forces (August to December, 1942) .. .. .. 701,460 New Zealand Forces (January to December, 1942) .. .. .. 969,979 Shipping (January to December, 1942) .. .. .. .. 234,000 1,905,439 Co-operation from the New Zealand Poultry Board has helped the Department in the overcoming of many difficulties throughout the year.

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