§ Rear-Admiral Beamishasked the Minister of Agriculture whether there are prospects of increasing poultry rations to enable domestic poultry keepers to have more than the present limit of 25 birds; what are the reasons for not allowing extra and unrationed birds to be kept at present; and how many domestic poultry keepers there are now registered?
Mr. HudsonNo, Sir. Rations of poultry food are allowed to domestic poultry keepers according to the number of shell-egg registrations they surrender, either, of members of their households or of friends and neighbours. The number of birds for which rations are allowed is limited to 25, because a poultry keeper with more than that number cannot legally supply eggs to persons outside his own household who may have surrendered their shell egg registrations through him. There is no limitation on the number of poultry that any person may keep, since the restrictions relate only to the amount of poultry food that may be purchased and the method of disposal of the eggs where more than 25 birds are kept. The number of domestic poultry keepers when the latest return was received amounted to about 980,000.