The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13, 1926. THOUGHTS ABOUT BUTTER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3601, 13 October 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 13, 1926. THOUGHTS ABOUT BUTTER.

With which is incorporated., "The Taihape Post and Waimarino News."

Circumstances that' 5 are going to deprive the masses of the people of this Dominion oflmtter are amongst the most deplorable experienced since war commenced. If man were not an omnivorous being he might get along without the use of animal fats as food, but foe Is not, and, as lie draw: from animal fat the greater proportion of vitamines needed to keep him in health, and even to keep life in his body deprivation of them is going to have a very serious effect upon the national stamina* This aspect of the food fat question is orely known of in New Zealand from-reading about what happened in Britain and other countries during the war and of conditions which still obtain in a large part of Europe at the present moment. In fact it is primarily owing to the shortage of food fats in Europe 'that the masses in this Dominion are to be deprived of that it may be sent to feed the rich amongst war-madden : ed peoples who have consumed their stocks of food fats while fighting to secure world domination. New Zealand people are to share the punishment which the guilty swash-buck-lers of Europe alone should bear. The masses of the -Dominion are to have a very serious lesson taught them; they are to have it forced upon them that It profiteth them nothing to work at producing ample supplies of food owing to having no voice whatever in the disposition of the food produced. It Is a fact, which everyone now realises, that men may work in producing food; in providing for the needs of themselves and their fellows, and yet find their self-raised means to live are taken from them and sent to feed back to life' and arrogance their erstwhile greatest enemies, the people against whom they have had to defend their very lives and properties. In the case of butter the men who own the cows milked, together with those who own shares in factories in which milk is converted into a condition for export, can sell their product out of the country • of its origin, pocketing Avhatever prices are offered and paid by people livingin the midst of a milk and butter famine, owing to their ownj wickedness. Wages men who milk cows, perform the manufacturing processes, , do the clerical work in connection therewith, handle the product in transportation, "place it upon sfrps, have no benefit whatever in the famine prices rich foreigners pay; it is the herd-owners and shareholders alone who benefit, and yet! the assistance of the others is essential in making and distributing the product. But that is one of the anomalies of production and distributing systems of what is produced in this ccurslry. The rush for abnormally high prices is not dissimilar to dogs fighting for the morsel that is necessary to life; the , victor lives while the defeated starves. Viewing the distribution of the benefits from primary production from any standpoint, its defects are too obvious to need description. Whether famine prices are of benefit in .a country where there is no famine is a moot point hut it is undeniable that an abnormally high price of one product has the effect of increasing the price of all others with which it has any relation, and of many others of spurious relationship. It is generally admitted that the mass of workers will have to fall back upon the use of butter substitutes; upon dripping and upon oleo-margarine. Probably it has not occurred to apologists for high prices that any greater demand upon meat fats than already exists is going to result in sending up the price of beef aDd mutton fat, and, incidentally the price of beef and mutton also. Butchers have hitherto charged moderately for meat, but to secure pven distribution prices must increase if an abnormal demand is made for beef and mutton fat. Doubtless, the present increase in the price of butter must' result in boosting up tho price of all fats having any food value.

The dangerous aspect is that it will cause fats to be sold In* palatable form which have no food value. Oleomargarine is made from copra, or cocoa-nut oil i\ vegetable oil devoid of those vitamines essential to human life, and which abound in all animal fats. Those vegetable oils of which oleo-margarine is made have no effect in keeping the death-like pallor from the faces of men. women, and children, who are losing their lives from the want of animal fat while taking vegetable fats in the belief that they are just as good. Men suffering from fat shortage will voraciously swallow vegetable oil, drinking it >by the pint, and yet it does not satisfy their appetite for fat. If the demand for butter substitutes should veer off towards oleo-margarine the pr'ce of copra and cocoa-nut oil will naturally soar to a height proportionate to the. increased and every commodity into which fat enters, including such articles as sonp. mus,t increase in price. Purveyors of 'Ofleo-margaiine will wittingly or unwittingly trade upon the ignorance of the people by selling them oleo-mar-garine which has little or no' food value. Imitation butter will vie with the real article In price, rivalling prices charged for real food fats. Soap and all commodities into which either animal or vegetable fat enters I must sympathetically index the fat shortage resulting from placing butI ter beyond the reach of the masses of j the people. It is only necessary 1o categorise the man:'fold uses of fat to realise the appalling menace to popular content the butter question is going to be responsible for. It is not , natural that men, women and children will submit to starvation in' the very midst of plenty. Fear of imprisonment has not deterred starving people from stealing bread, and it is scarcely likely that New Zealanders will trouble about the threats of anybody when the horrifying results of fat shortage become understood. Prom ,a business point of view there are questions arising as to whether it is sound practice to destroy the local demand for butter. The time is not far distant.when something near prewar prices will again obtain. The future promises a production to which that of the past will have no comparison. The number of butter producers in the future will be so great as to reduce those of the past to something negligible. Hundreds of millions of acres of ideal dairying country will be { brought into production as peasant j farmers alone can bring it/ If h ! worth while to think out the advant- ; ages that will, ultimately accrue from j bringing into popular use substitutes for butter. The spirit of the men who would stand at nothing is discovered, in the Wellington merchant who said to a "Times" reporter, "What's the use of people kicking? There's the price ? and if people donft like to.pay for it, well, they've got to go without butter." Such arc the men and the sentiments which are responsible for high prices and labour troubles; such are the men who grab regardless of whether milkers, makers and transporters of butter have or have not sufficient food to keep life in their bodies. Other Wellington merchants, men more humane and more commercially just have stated that, "the people of New. should have some protection. Because one part of the world is in a state of chaos, because food production is at a standstill, and famine prices for butter rule There is 11b reason why New Zealanders should be penalised because foreigners 14,000 miles away are short." It seems that butter has brought this little land of plenty to fTTe cross-roads of success and failure. It is questionable whether, as stated in the fable, the butter hand thrust into the narrow-necked jar is not grabbing so much of the de- ; sirablc contents that withdrawal of the hand is impossible, and all has eventually to be dropped. Meanwhile, the monopolising "Stork" can thrust into the jar his long bill and consume the whole of its contents. It is a very far-reaching question; iio fair-minded person wild deny that the dairyfarmer is entitled to all the good things that come his way, and if high j butter prices were at all likely to re- j suit in the State immensely increasing the number of dairy-farmers throughout the whole of New Zealand, people might be inclined to submit to n temporary butter famine. The present Government has faith in nothiife of the kind, for it still pin? its ff>?th to the production of wool and nTeat, indicating that its op : nion is, that the butter famine in Europe is only of a more or less; fugitive character. The alarming feature of the immense increase in butter prices is like the dropping of a boulder into a lake, the circle of waves it produces ultimately reaching over the whole surface. In sympathy, the prices of a large variety of articles will increase. All fats and everything in which fat is an essential will reflect what is happening with regard to butter. It yet remains to b" disclosed how the economic situation generally will become involved particularly with respect to wages.