EGGS AND MILK MARKET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 47, 8 February 1944, Page 4

EGGS AND MILK MARKET

SERIOUS POSITION ARISES METHODS OF CONTROL According to a message from Christchurch, .black marketing in eggs has reached serious propoitions in the Canterbury egg marketing district and drastic acation is threatened against offenders (says the Wellington Evening' Post) . When a desirable and essential food commodity is in short supply control measures, involving a system of at least partial centralisation, arc in.-t evi table, and those who endeavour from selfish motives to circumvent the regulations must take the consequences. When laws are made they must be observed. At the .same time the authorities should not. rely entirely upon compulsion and more sion for a remedy. They should 'inquire whether the flouting of Xho. regulations may not be due in a measure to faults in the s3 T stem of control. It may be that the regulations are too cumbersome and too restrictive. Justifiable complaints have be.cn made in the past about inequalities in supply brought about by weaknesses in the system of distribution. For instance, not long ago people in some districts —Well-* ington was one—were virtually deprived of eggs while others in other ; districts had a surplus. Again, there were cases of eggs being sent to a central,market, and then being "returned to their point of origin for sale, involving waste of time, transport and money. Not only was this plainly uneconomic, but it probably gave rise to complaints of stateness. A system of rigid control can only be said to be entirely satisfactory | when it gives the public the service ' to which they are entitled —an equit- " able share of available supplies. Can ' it be said that the system of distri-* buting eggs liasi stood up to this tcsit ?

Breaches of the law must be dealt with, but it would be better to over-, haul the system of control in an endeavour to remove possible causes of breaches. The: public ai'e quick to resent forms of control which result in inequalities, and it is possible that tljc black, market operations of which complaint is made arc in part a symptom of that resentment rather than a deliberate flouting of the laAv. In recent months the egg position has shown consid-. erable improvement, but it may be that public resentment of cumbersome and -restrictive control measures still remains. This resentment can best be overcome by another overhaul of the system.