300 



Consumption of Food Products. 



to those circumstances, referred to above, which have brought 

 within the reach of the industrial population an abundant 

 supply of cheap meat from colonial and foreign sources. In 

 other words, the larger consumption of meat per head of the 

 population really means that the art icle has become less of a 

 luxury to the poorer classes of the community than was 

 formerly the case. So far as can be judged from the statistics 

 quoted above as to the supplies of wheat, there is no evidence 

 of a decreased consumption of bread ; on the contrary, it would 

 almost appear that the tendency has been in the opposite 

 direction. As regards other farinaceous foods, there has been 

 apparently some displacement of potatoes ; and the information 

 collected by the Royal Commission on Labour shows that oat- 

 meal is giving way to white bread and tea. The position of 

 cheese cannot be clearly ascertained, but, as has already been 

 noted, it has been held that the demand for cheese of home 

 production has declined with the introduction of cheap meat. 

 Butter, including margarine, on the other hand, appears to be 

 consumed to a greater extent now than twenty years ago. 



On the whole, the inference to which an examination of all 

 the evidence may point is not so much that the increased 

 consumption of meat has been accompanied by a smaller 

 demand for other things, but that the people generally are 

 better fed. 



