The lives of housewives around the world during World War Two was similar in some ways and yet very different in other ways. No matter where you lived, everyone was suffering and sacrificing in some way. Wives and mothers here in New Zealand may have had more butter and sugar than their British sisters but they still had to say goodbye to their husbands and sons and send them off on ships to the other side of the world. Hoping and praying they would see them again. As a mother of three sons, I can only imagine the torment and anxiety they would have gone through.
One of my great grandmothers, Margaret, whom had only just approximately 9 or 10 years earlier, immigrated from Scotland to New Zealand, had to send her 5 sons back across the seas. My grandad was one of the youngest and was sent to the Pacific at age 17. He told officials he was 18! Thank goodness he survived and returned so I could know him. He was a wonderful grandad. Thankfully, all the other sons also returned home safely. I know one great uncle was a POW but not sure about the others. I can't imagine how my great grandmother coped with this and how she got through the years of waiting. Praying and trusting.
One thing I do understand is, domestic life was a lot harder than we know it and as busy days passed by, you would have been quite busy and hopefully it took your mind off things a little. Some families would have had younger children at home, farms and land to take care of and jobs to tend to.
Life was vastly different back then, no internet to receive instant news. Just relying on the daily broadcast and newspaper which was limiting in the information they conveyed.
New Zealand was also a very different country, still young and rural at heart. Life was slower and cities and towns were a lot smaller than they are now. My great grandparents and other relatives were mostly living in rural farming areas or small towns. Although electricity was common by the 1930's, not all households were lucky enough to have it until after World War Two. Perhaps more so in rural areas.
I have found it quite fascinating diving into the rationing here in New Zealand. It is not so easy to find a lot of information but what I have discovered is interesting.
Rationing started here in early 1940 with petrol being the first thing to be rationed. This lasted well past the ending of the war until 1950. Food wasn't rationed until quite sometime later.
🍞 In April 1942 the first food item to be rationed was sugar. The bulk of our sugar cane supply came from Queensland, Australia which was being affected by the handing over of sugar factories into munitions factories. There was also the matter of a shortage of workers as men were going off to war. As Japan then entered the war and invaded the Philippines and Java, this put a strain on the international sugar supply which was where a large amount of sugar was produced. So rationing had to begin. New Zealand housewives still had a much larger ration of sugar compared to British housewives, at 12oz or 340grams per adult compared to the smaller ration of 8oz or 226grams for the British. An extra sugar allowance was given once a year for jam making. The amount would vary every year, between 6 - 12lb or 2.7 - 5.4kg of sugar. It shows just how important it was for housewives to be preserving and making jam, a huge part of their way of life. Golden syrup which is a by-product of the manufacture of sugar, became popular during this time and has remained a staple in kiwi kitchens ever since. Kiwi households were also encouraged to use sweet vegetables such as, beetroot, parsnips, carrots and swedes to add sweetness to cooking and baking. Dried fruit was also an alternative but was sometimes difficult to source. I haven't found anywhere that mentions that dried fruit was rationed but just harder to find due to shortages. However, in my old recipe books from my great grandmother and great aunts, dried fruit features a lot in recipes, especially in the 1950's, shortly after the war ended.
🍞 June of 1942 Tea was rationed to 2oz per adult per week. This is particularly hard for me, it only allows for about 3 cups of tea per day. If you saved your teabags you could reuse them for a fourth cup of tea at the end of the day. You could have more if you didn't mind weak tea I guess and in these times you would have to learn not to be so fussy and be grateful for what you had.
🍞 June of 1943 Eggs were limited but from what I can find, they weren't rationed like they were in the UK. Also in New Zealand many households even in city backyards, had hens and therefore had their own supply of eggs. Both my parents whom were born in the early 1950's grew up with backyard hens or in my Dad's case on the farm they had hens and also for meat not just eggs. Growing up I had an Aunty who had backyard hens and even ourselves, just a couple of years ago, we also had backyard hens.
🍞 October 1943 Butter was rationed to 8oz or 225grams per adult per week. This is a much bigger ration than British households at only 2oz or 50grams. This is almost half a block of butter that we have here in New Zealand. I don't even consume this amount of butter.! As a family of five we probably use one block per week which is 500grams, maybe a little bit more depending on the baking that I am doing. The butter I buy is currently just over $7.00 for a 500gram block and that is the cheapest!
So no wonder old recipes call for a larger quantity of butter than British recipes. Even with a generous ration quantity it was still quite a reduction compared to what people were used to. With New Zealand being largely an agricultural nation there was always plenty of milk, cream and butter to go around for everyone. From what I understand from my Dad who grew up on a farm in the south, most small farms had their own cow and my Nana would milk their cow and then churn her own butter in a wooden butter churn. A lot of hard manuel labour.
Which brings me to cream. During the rationing years cream was illegal because all cream was to be used for the manufacture of butter and New Zealand was exporting quite a considerable amount of butter to Britain at this time to help feed the nation there. Even farmers were not allowed to keep any cream for themselves. It is hard to know if this was just larger dairy farms where the milk was collected for nationwide distribution and manufacture of milk and butter or if small family farms with one or two cows could keep their little bit of cream. I absolutely love cream and cannot imagine going many years without it.
🍞 October 1943 Cheese was limited to the nation but not rationed.
🍞 From May 1943 to December 1945 fresh pork including bacon was not available to the New Zealand public as it was being sent to the United States Military in the Pacific who needed it. I found this to be a very interesting piece of information. Also, at different times, a lot of fresh vegetables and fruit were also being sent to the US Military. There was throughout the war, quite a large presence of US Military personnel based here and providing food to them in the Pacific would have been a way of supporting them and the role they had to play in protecting the Southern oceans and our small nation here.
🍞 March 1944 Meat rationing was introduced at this time to help the British nation. I am not sure how ships carrying food from New Zealand to Britain got safely through the waters, especially with German boats patrolling in certain stretches of water but they must have. The meat ration was reduced to 2.5 pounds or just over 1 kilo per person per week. Sausages and fish weren't rationed so this was still a reasonable quantity of meat if you cooked frugally and wisely.
This is hopefully an interesting overview of rationing here in New Zealand during World War Two. Even though quantities were bigger in comparison to British rationing, I think it would have still seemed restrictive in comparison to what people were used to. It's also the uncertainty of what was going on around you at the time, a small nation seeming very far away from wars that are being fought on the other side of the world but also being fought in our own backyard of the Pacific Ocean with the Japanese and not really knowing how close to home it perhaps was. The anxiety of having loved ones so far away and not knowing what was happening. No matter where you lived at the time, it would not have been an easy time. Yet people seemed to come together and support one another. Communities rallied together and made the best of the situation at hand.
Wherever you are, I pray you have a safe and blessed week. Thanks for being here!
Love, Fiona
" If God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! " Luke 12.28
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