WORK AND BREAD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 428, 5 September 1947, Page 29

WORK AND BREAD

Britain on Short Commons

HY, it is sometimes asked, don’t the people of Britain work harder and longer, produce more, and so get out of their economic difficulties and reduce food rationing? The answer is that they can’t. The average worker can do just a bare day’s work on the rations he is allowed; more than that would be physically impossible. \Figures secured by The Listener from /¥Food Controller in New Zealand Show that the United Kingdom to-day is on the lowest food-level per capita since rationing was introduced in January, 1940. And she is far worse off than’ New Zealand, Canada, the United States of America, or Australia. How South Africa and Russia are faring we were not able to discover. At any rate, the Englishman to-day talks , to his grocer and his butcher in terms Yoot ounces; the New Zealander deals in _ pounds when. ordering most foods. British rationing started with butter, bacon, and sugar. Since 1940 it has been extended so that nearly all important foods are now controlled by rationing er other distribution schemes administered by the Ministry of Food. The Ministry is also responsible for the rationing of soap. The British system is highly complex; but under the ordinary rationing scheme, the consumer is restricted to a fixed quantity of each food for a fixed period. There is also a points scheme through which the consumer is allowed to spend, in a period of four weeks, a given number of points on any of the foods included in the rationing system. He does not register with his retailer, but he can spend his points coupons at any shop at which the foods are available. When first introduced in December, 1941, the points rationing scheme was confined to canned. meat, canned beans, and canned fish, but it was later extended to cover a wide range of foods, To provide his monotonous meals for e@ week, the Englishman is allowed to buy himself 10 ounces of sugar, six ounces of table fat (which includes two to three ounces of butter, varying according to supply), one ounce of cooking fat, 1/2 worth of meat (of which 2d worth must be canned), two ounces of cheese, three ounces of bacon, two ounces of tea, and 2% pints of milkthat is, if he can get these supplies,

Even Bread is Limited There would be something very wrong with a day in a New Zealander’s life without an ample supply of bread-for the morning toast, with the mid-day or evening soup, perhaps two or three slices t tea or dinner, and one to top off with cheese at supper, Yet in England, this, he commonest of all British foods, has been rationed since July 21 last year. It was necessary to adopt a differential scale of allowances to meet variations in the need for bread which exist between different classes of the community. A normal adult gets nine ounces of bread a day, a child under four years, five ounces; from four to 11 years, nine ounces; from 11 to 18, thirteen ounces; and an expectant mother must make do

with 11 ounces. If flour and cakes are bought, the quantity of bread allowed is reduced. By contrast, New Zealand troops have an allowance of a onepound loaf perm man per day-a dry ration which only the most voracious can dispose of. The only things not rationed at present in Britain are fish, potatoes, and other vegetables. Eggs and eggpowders, so necessary for baking and for providing variety to the menu, are available only as they come to hand. American Cornucopia There is no rationing in the United States of America. Sugar is still controlled when supplied to the manufacturers, but not when sold to household consumers. Sugar is the only food rationed in Canada, but even that may be free at any time now; meat and butter rationing was dropped some time ago. In Australia, sugar-rationing has been discontinued, The meat allowance is two pounds a week, and the butter ration is the same as in New Zealand-. six ounces a_ week. The New Zealand housewife knows the workings of food-buying as well as she knows her own wedding-ring, but for purposes of comparison, we give the New Zealand figures to show how much better off she is than her British sister: 12 ounces of sugar a week, two ounces of tea, six ounces of butter, and meat to the value of 1/6 (or'2 1-7lb.) are her and her family’s individual portion. Sweet-toothed people in England may yet have no need of teaspoons, for there is talk of dropping their sugar ration still further. Freedom in the Restaurant Any exténsive rationing scheme must have a certain proportion of anomalies. For instance, the diner in a British restaurant is not asked by the waitress to surrender coupons for his cuts of beef, his steak, or his mutton, At one sitting he can eat as much as he wants toif the fare is available-provided he has the price in his pocket. Restaurant coupons were suggested recently, but so far there has been no announcement of their introduction. Coming to an item which the average ‘New Zealander regards as a necessity and the Englishman as a luxury, sweets ate heavily rationed. Use your points for confectionery and your sugar ration is correspondingly reduced, Tobacco is unrestricted. But a cigarette ‘costs 2d with a possible rise shortly to 3d. So the hospitable habit of passing round the packet has gone, for smokes are, in effect, rationed by their price.