SHORTAGE OF EGGS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 144, 20 February 1915, Page 7

SHORTAGE OF EGGS.

FARMERS KILL POULTRY. FOWL FOOD TOO COSTLY. (By Telegraph. —Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Feb 19. The confectioners right through Ne\t Zealand are being embarrassed by the scarcity of eggs and the almost certain prospect of a very much more serious shortage when the winter months come. In ordinary seasons, during the summer, eggs are plentiful and cheap, and confectioners buy them and preserve them for winter use. One of the objects of this procedure is to save expense, but it is necessary for another reason. If the big users of eggs for trade purposes wore to bo competitors for eggs In the winter, there would never be enough to satisfy normal demands at anything like normal prices.

A few observations on the state of the egg market were made to-day by one of the pastrycooks in the city. ‘‘At the present time,” he said, ‘‘owing t$ the very high price of grain, poultrykeepers are killing off their birds and sending them wholesale into the markets, and the result is sure to be that it wiil be imposiblo to get eggs in the winter time for use in our business. At this period of the year, eggs usually cost 1/5 to 1/6 a dozen. Now they are being retailed at 2/- a dozen and what the price will be in the winter no one can say. In my opinion, the Government ought to remove the duty on imported eggs. It is now 20 per cent, or HO per cent, if we get them from America. The position is aggravated by the fact that the supply of eggs from the Continent, from Belgium, Holland, and Germany, is entirely stepped. Those of us who do not believe in putting synthetic subsitutes for eggs into our goods are in a quandary as to what to do. 1 certainly think that during the war, when the inflation of the price of grain is unavoidable, the Government ought to suspend the duty on eggs in the interests of the general community. ’ ’