The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1946 MORE FOOD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 87, 17 June 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1946 MORE FOOD

IT is good to see the Federated Farmers of New Zealand cooperating with the Government in setting a higher target for next year’s production and in reviewing existing difficulties that hinder a development of agriculture. Politically, farmers and the Government are perhaps more disunited than they have ever been, but the stark needs of a hungry world have for the moment overruled their differences, and the plan published appears as a sincere effort to increase New Zealand’s contribution to the world food pool. That contribution should be assisted materially by the resumption in July of phosphate shipments from Ocean and Nauru Islands and by the consequent gradual improvement in fertiliser supplies. The psychology of the New "Zealand farmer may be as important as the material factors. High taxation, the short hours worked in urban industry, and the expectation of higher prices for farm produce, may all tend to discourage the extra exertion that is required for a great increase in production. And in election year when feeling will run high there will be bitterness and argument that will distract the farmer from the task that can be carried out successfully in the first place only by his personal effort. The steadier is the urgent need of the British people and of others even worse afflicted. That is an appeal stronger, than party politics and sectional differences, and it has to be answered by the farmer, freezing worker, railwaymen and watersider if New Zealand is to accept its full responsibility in the world food crisis.