FRUIT COMMISSION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 4

FRUIT COMMISSION.

COMING TO AUCKLAND. LOCAL GROWERS' PROBLEMS. The commision, comprising Mr. J. A. Campbell, Director of Horticulture, Mr. A. Coleman, of Stratford, and Mr. J. Thomas, of the Department of- Industries and Commerce, which has been set up to inquire into the fruit and allied industries, is shortly to visit Auckland. At a meeting held yesterday of the new Auckland Commercial Gardeners' Association, formerly known as the Tomato Growers' Association, various matters to be brought before the commission were considered. Captain A. A. Currey, just returned from the Dominion Tomato and Soft Fruit Growers' Conference in Wellington, outlined to the growers the aims of the commission as set before tiie conference by Mr. R. M. Campbell, Director of Agriculture, and the Hon. W. Lee Martin, Minister of Agriculture. The inquiry, he said, was to go into the methods of growing, packing and marketing of fruit, said the Minister, with a view to narrowing the margin between the cost to the producer and the price paid by the consumer. The existing "rafferty rules," he said, must go. Registration of Tomato Growers. Delegates at the conference, continued Captain Currey, had stressed the need for registration of all growers. As Auckland's representative lie had supported this suggestion, for only by this means could the present ruinous competition be overcome, and the industry put on a sound footing. In the past the competition of Cook Island tomatoes, which in the flush of the season sometimes arrived in shipments of as much as 10,000 cases, and of local Chinese-grown supplies, produced by under-paid labour, working from daylight till dark, had caused a glut. As a result growers had sold their fruit at a loss in many cases. Cook Island Competition. Captain Currey had suggested at the conference that the island tomatoes be excluded during October, November and December, when the local season was at its height. The island growers had a tropical climate and could grow all the year round, so that they would not be unduly penalised. He, did not agree with the southern delegates who wanted total exclusion, but regulation was necessary.