Food Shortage Means More Poultry This Easter

Chronicle (Levin), 12 April 1949, Page 5

Food Shortage Means More Poultry This Easter

WELLINGTON, April 11. ' Wellington dinner -tables need not go short of poultry this Easter. More birds are reaching the anction marts than for a long time, almost more thau at Christmas, when the demand is heavy. The probable explanation is that both wlieat and mash have been in short supply, and poultry keepers, many of them cauglit without feed, have beeu sweiiing the normal market. Price^ h'ave held fairly well so far, but there is no telling how long that will last. Some relief for the poultry men is in sight,0 liowever, with the eurrent un Ioading of a wheat ship at" New Plymouth. A few turkeys are starting to reach auction, but most are handled by private treaty with the growers and dc .not reaoh the auction market. Those that have been auotioned brought up te 2s 3d a pound live weight. Geese are not particularly popular and have been rcalising from 7s to 9s each at auction; eoloured dueks vary from 4s 6d to 10s and vrhite ducks irom 6s 6d to 12s each according to age and quality; the be.it Biack Drpington hens range fro'm ' 9s to 11s 6d each and others from 6s to 7«; and White Leghorns (best) from fs to 4s 9d each, and others from 2s 6d to -Is. Cockerels have been worth ls 9d to 2s a pound (live weight). Supplies of fish, ih all varieties, are aiso plentifui and there will be no q.iestion of a shortage for Easter. Additional supplies of' oysters have been available to Wellingtonians this season, but the main governing factor is the ueather at Bluff. It was becausp of bad weather down south that oysters did not arrive last week.