MAINTAINING FOOD SUPPLIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 18, 16 October 1943, Page 4

MAINTAINING FOOD SUPPLIES

The adverse weather conditions that have prevailed.since the commencement of the 1943-44- season must have a very serious effect on production. The national income will be reduced and there will be other unwelcome results, but to most people the really vital aspect will be the possible reduction in the capacity of the Dominion to provide the British food authorities with the foodstuffs which they look to us to supply. Last production year our exports of butter fell by 84,700 cwt. and cheese by no less than 405,000 cwt., and the only off-set to this adverse movement was an increase of 35,700 cwt. in butterfat. If production in the current season should result in still further reductions, then the position in Britain would be serious, for this country , is her largest supplier of these essential products. It is admitted that several factors have handicapped the producers, ’ particularly the cumulative effects of the lack of sufficient fertilizers i and the shortage of labour, but the position presents a challenge to New Zealand, as it has to Australia, and the prompt action taken there is called for here. The scope is admittedly limited, but there is one course open to the Government that could, and should be taken, namely, to ask the domestic consumer to make a practical contribution in the form of rationed quantities. According to the chairman of a northern dairy association, the Minister of. Agriculture, during the election campaign, placed the British requirements from us for the current year at 115,000 tons of butter.’ That would necessitate an increase of over 240,000 cwt. on the total exported last production year, and, with the bad start made this season, it would be futile to look solely to the dairj 7 - farmer to make good that balance. But in all probability it could be done if local consumption were placed on the same per capita basis as in both Australia and Canada, although the longer the Government delays its decision the less the prospect of success. On the production side, something might be done if supplies of phosphates could be obtained from North Africa. Hie Federal authorities, it has been reported, are testing phosphate deposits in Western Australia, in the hope that some supplies may be obtained, but, apart from whatever the deposits at Clarendon can be made to produce, the Dominion will have to rely on increased shipments from 'overseas: If the shipping position has improved, and there is reason to believe that it has, then the authorities should make renewed efforts to get cargoes from Tunisia, as a means of increasing the output of foodstuffs. t Nothing can be done to replace the losses farmers have suffered in the heavy lamb mortality and in other ways, but the community can assist to maintain supplies of dairy produce to Great Britain.. With the winter weather approaching there the need for these things is increasingly great, and in its domestic consumption the. Dominion has a substantial reserve that should be tapped, as a contribution for the best possible purpose, the health and welfare of the people of the United Kingdom. We were told last June that, if rationing of butter came, it would apply to the 1943-44 season. 1 hat commenced on August 1 last and still no action has been taken. The consumers’ contribution could have provided some thousands of tons in the period that has been allowed to elapse with nothing being done.