EMPIRE FOOD

Hokitika Guardian, 29 June 1932, Page 8

EMPIRE FOOD

PRAISE OF THE DOMINION

SIR JOHN RUSSELL’S VIEWS

LONDON. June 27

In an article on Empire food supplies Sir John Russell (Director o'. Rothamsted Experimental Station), who was in New Zealand a year or-two ago, refers to the produce of the Dominion.

“It is difficult to understand,” lie says, “why we should eat so little mutton when supplies are so eas.'lv obtained. We consume per head onls Mb per week, as against nearly l£lb of beef. We produt'6 nearly half, the mutton wo consume, and New Zealand sends us most of the rdst. The-devel-opment of the New Zealand Jamb industry'is one. of the rom. nt.es of mod ern science. New Zealand is well adapted for grass, even ’ better than most of England, for- the grass wil. grow over great parts of it for ten or eleven months of the year: it is air admirably adapted for sheep and fo cattle.”

Sir John goes on to say that everything regarding exports is well d in' in New Zealand. “It is proper! graded, inspected, packed, sent ove: refrigerated chambers, inspected a’ this end and dealt with by experts a! every turn. Nothing is left to chance expert representatives see that Nev Z,inland produce lias a fair .show in our retail shops. All these overheat’ cervices cost surprisingly little; on• of every shilling the customer pay for New Zealand butter the New Zen land farmer gets nearly 9d, while fo; every shilling paid for fresh milk tin English farmer g n ts only Gd. It is o’ course, the advantage of i big producer’s! organisation. New Zealand dues not supply all of our importet lamb; some comes from Australia, which could gend us huge qnantitici of lamb and mutton. Of the non Empire sources the Argentine Is the chief. It would not, however, he at all difficult to obtain the whole of our imported lamb and mutton from Non Zealand and Australia.

“No one would venture to predict how far New Zealand will go in dev loping he;' butter supplies.” Sir John adds. “She has not yet caught up Denmark hut comes easily second. Australia comes third and the Irish Free State fourth in order of supolies Denmark at present supplied one-third of all our butter imports, and the Empire could certainly supply the rest. A s -rio’r.e competitor with butter has, however, arisen—margarine. It is a p gt-war taste: before the war we ate only five ounces of margarine for every lb of butter; now we eat two and a half times as much as we did. in .the main, however, it is an addition I food, for we still eat nearly as much butter per head as in pre-war days.”