DIG FOR VICTORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1943, Page 3

DIG FOR VICTORY

PREMIER APPEALS TO ALL HOME GARDENERS

MAXIMUM PRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES.

NEEDED TO MEET DEMANDS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day.

The importance of the "Dig for Victory” campaign was emphasised by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, in an address last night. He said the object of the campaign was to make sure that New Zealanders grew the greatest possible supply of vegetables in their home gardens. By doing so they could help in one more way to contribute to and to speed the day of victory. In the first three years of war, Mr Fraser said, “New Zealand shipped in butter, cheese and meat to the Mother Country one and two-third millions of tons —a wonderful achievement in production by our primary producers. When America entered the war we undertook another great responsibility, for we decided to feed as far as our resources would allow, the forces assembled in the South Pacific.’

In the coming year, he went on to observe, we had undertaken to supply almost twice as much food in the Pacific area as formerly. To meet those needs the Government had established thousands of acres of vegetable farms. The market gardens also were producing all they could, but it was essential that all citizens, as individuals, should busy themselves in an effort to alleviate the position.

“To encourage and help pdople to grow their own vegetables home gardening organisations have been preparing themselves for some months,” the Premier added. “They have arranged regular radio talks and have prepared written instructions, demonstration plots are being established, and expert advice will be available to all. Women whose husbands are away with the forces or engaged in essential work elsewhere, will be assisted in preliminary hard digging, and in some districts the E.P.S. organisation is undertaking this work. “There is need for the utmost effort by everyone with any garden space at all. and I have no hesitation in appealing to all to do all they possibly can to assist once more in an important na‘tional duty, to help directly the men who are fighting for us in the Pacific, to help the people of our own country by preventing a shortage of food because of the prior need of the forces, to relieve the problem of road and rail haulage of vegetables in our own country, and to save the need for valuable shipping space for the carriage of food between the United States and New Zealand.”