ISLAND TOMATOES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 213, 8 September 1928, Page 12

ISLAND TOMATOES.

REGULATION OF IMPORTS. A QUESTION OF PRICE. VZ. liRuWhUS' Dlli'K I'LTIL.s. ti;> I elcgrnph.— Parliamentary Importer.) WELLINGTON', Friday. Ill'-, t a miliar question of the advisability i> f allowing the importation of loi'k Inland tomatoes was discussed in lli.' Hoiho to-night. 'Mr. T. .NT. Wilford (Hint; thought they should t>o allowed into New Zealand • oily when Dominion producer.-; could not supply them. Mr. .1. MeCombs (Lyttelton) said nothing should bo done to discourage the tomato growers. Supplies front the rids .-thould he regulated. Competition I let wren New Zealand and island growers should lie on a. fair ha sis. Ihe Minister (Sir Maui I'omare) replied that niie-halt' of the total quantity "f tomatoes imported hy New Zealand during November and December i-amc. trom the. took Islands, and sold at • ijd per lb. against over 1/ per lb for tlie .New Zealand fruit. Mr. McComhs: That's nut the point. You are destroying a New Zealand inductry. Sir Maui said it was odd to tind Labour members defending the capitalist, i Laughter.) The member had said thousands of pounds wore invested in glass-houses, but had overlooked the fact that the public had to pay dearly for New Zealand fruit, which sold at over a shilling, whereas Island tomatoes were only 3d and 4-Jd. lie left it to the. public to dceide which course was right. Mr 1 . I*\ N. Bavtram (G-re-y Lynn) resented the spirit of the Minister in sneering at an Opposition member because for once in his life lie had supported a capitalist. Surely the Minister knew very well that New Zealand tomato growers were "small men," with all their slight means invested in glass-houses. The cheap fruit question could Ik l , carried too far. He (Mr. Bartram) thought the took Islands fruit import season should commence two months earlier and close two months earlier. That would solve l he. problem. The. fruit which arrived In"" * towards the latter part of the Cook I lands' season was no credit to the Mauds, as most of the tomatoes were shrivelled up by the. sun. Such tomatoes were useful only for cooking purposes. If the Cook Islanders never exported another tomato they would be just as happy and contented as they were to-day, but their fruit made it very difficult for those with money invested in rhe New Zealand industry. We could get • heap fruit at too great a cost, especially when some of it was nasty as well as cheap. The men affected in New Zealand could not by any stretch of the imagination be called capitalists. If the Reform party would wateh the interests of this type of "capitalist" the Government would not be subjected to so much Oppooition criticism. The Minister said nothing more.