Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1943. MANPOWER AND FOOD PRODUCTION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1943. MANPOWER AND FOOD PRODUCTION.

QN a number of grounds the time seems overdue for a eom])rehensive examination of the organisation and allocation of New Zealand manpower, with a view to determining whether it is being used to the best effect from the point of view ol winning the war. A. great deal of official machinery to deal with manpower has been created and this machinery is woi king after a fashion, but whether adequately serious thought is being given by our responsible authorities to the question of making adjustments suggested by the extension ol: the war and changing national and world conditions appears to be at least open to question. There is a good deal in existing circumstances to suggest that an early meeting of Parliament to deal with the whole'question of manpower would be more than warranted. The last word perhaps has not been said on the maintenance of a New Zealand Division in Europe, simultaneously with the maintenance of another Division in the Pacific, in addffion to our heavy Air Force, naval and oilier commitments. lh.il apart, however, manpower policy has its vital and immediate bearing on the food production question which is becoming more and more one of anxious concern to the United Nations and indeed to humanity at large. Lord Woolton, who is exchanging the position of Food Minister in Britain lor that, ol Minister of Reconstruction, is only one of a number of authorities of the highest standing who are agreed in emphasising that the world is moving into a period of acute food shortage. New Zealand, making as matters stand an appreciable contribution to world food supplies and potentially capable of adding largely to that contribution, may well be regarded as one of the, countries called upon to make a' special effort to increase the production of food. According to the Dominion Executive of the Farmers’ Union, however, the production of foodstuffs in New Zealand is on the down grade; The reasons for this, the executive states, are partly climatic, and to that extent temporary, partly material and partly psychological. The adverse material factors include a shortage of fertiliser and other farm requirements and a shortage of ‘.‘adequate, efficient and permanent labour.” The executive declares further that the farming community is suffering from a feeling of frustration —a feeling that the efforts of farmers and their womenfolk are being nullified by inefficient administration “and by inability to appreciate the essential requirements for food production*.” Particular emphasis is laid by the executive on the extent to which the task of carrying on the dairy industry has devolved on women, some of whom are breaking down under the strain. Ollier factors than that of manpower are involved in the case Urns stated by the Farmers’ Union executive, and, in the extent to which that case is established, must be dealt with in remedying what is at fault. It seems likely, however, that a methodical treatment of the manpower question as it relates to farming industry and food production might open the way to the application of a comprehensive remedy. At bottom what has to be determined is how this country can best contribute to and advance the war effort of the United Nations. Nothing more is at stake' than the relative allocation of manpower as between, military and competing demands. .It will be agreed by all concerned that so long as the war continues, the military effort of the Dominion also must continue. But the relative allocation of manpower to the fighting services and to other services, amongst which the production of food ought to take a very high place, definitely is or should be open to consideration. The question of the proportion of its available manpower which New Zealand ought to employ in food production is one on which it might very reasonably ascertain the views of the British Government and those of the governments of some other Allied countries, particularly the United States., There is no suggestion of lightening or easing the national war effort. It is a matter of so shaping and directing the national war effort that it may tell with maximum effect in the cause’of the United Nations.