286 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 



remarkable that the British Empire should show such an enormous 

 deficiency in eggs, seeing that extensive cereal-producing regions 

 exist within its borders. 



It will be seen also from the table above that the only item in 

 which the deficiency in the United Kingdom was mainly covered 

 from other parts of the Empire is cheese, while the percentage of 

 the total imports so supplied rose from 59% in 1900 to over 80% 

 in 1913. Since the latter date, the production of cheese in the 

 Empire has increased rapidly, especially in New Zealand ; the total 

 surplus from the producing areas was over 2J million cwt. in 1916, 

 and this quantity is " quite sufficient to cover the deficiency in 

 the United Kingdom and other parts of the Empire where home pro- 

 duction does not cover consumption." x It is possible also, that 

 further increase may take place in the future in the surplus of cheese 

 from Canada and New Zealand, and " it is not improbable that the 

 production of cheese in the United Kingdom could be increased." l 

 If these conditions are realised the Empire may either become a 

 surplus-area in cheese, or it may increase its pre-war cheese con- 

 sumption and thereby reduce its meat consumption 2 and so lessen 

 its dependence upon foreign sources of supplies of animal foodstuffs. 



In spite of a considerable expansion in the Australasian exports 

 of butter in the period under review, the percentage of the total 

 deficiency in the United Kingdom in this commodity derived from 

 Imperial sources, rose but little, the figures being 194% in 1900 and 

 20-5% in 1913. In the latter year the enormous quantity of over 

 3J million cwts. was imported from foreign countries. It should 

 be noted that certain limited quantities of butter were exported 

 from Australia and New Zealand in 1913 to countries outside the 

 Empire, in which year also Canada received about 60,000 cwt. 

 from the same sources. 3 The percentage of the butter imports of 

 the United Kingdom supplied by the Empire would have risen 

 more, but for the changing situation in Canada. In the period 

 1901-05 the exports of butter from Canada averaged over 300,000 

 cwts. per annum, while by 1913, as we have seen, there were appre- 

 ciable net imports into the Dominion. The Canadian export trade 

 in butter has, however, reappeared since the outbreak of the war, 

 over 100,000 cwts. being exported to the United Kingdom in 1916 ; 

 but the future of this trade is very uncertain owing to the proximity 

 of the great American market, capable of absorbing not only any 

 moderate Canadian surplus of butter, but large quantities of cream 



eggs in 1913 amounted, therefore, to over 3 million cwt., since exports of eggs 

 from the Empire to foreign countries were negligible. (The Canadian fiscal 

 year ends on March 31st. Here and elsewhere in this section the Canadian 

 trade figures for the period 1912-14 are for the two years ending March 31st, 

 1914.) 



1 Dominions Commission Final Report (Cd. 8462), p. 184. 



2 For a discussion of the possible substitutes for meat, see Part II., Chaps, 

 ii. and v. 



3 Average of the two years ending March 31st, 1914, 



