"EAT MORE FRUIT."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 17

"EAT MORE FRUIT."

VALUABLE AS FOOD.

GREAT BRITAIN'S NEEDS.

MR. NASH GUEST AT DINNER. (By a Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 9. The value of fruit as a food and the desire of the Dominions to see increased quantities of it consumed in the United Kingdom were emphasised by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Marketing, Hon. Walter Nash, and the High Commissioner for Australia, Right Hon. Stanley Bruce, at the annual dinner of the National Federation of Fruit and Potato Trades this week. The Minister of Agriculture, Right Hon. W. S. Morrison, and the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Mr. W. J. Jordan, were

also guests. "I would say to Mr. Na.sh that the members of the federation hold close to their heart the subject which calls for his immediate attention," said the chairman, Mr. G. T. Clark. "The fruit market is naturally our greatest concern, and in order that our friends across the water and ourselves should understand one another it is to our interest and benefit that we should have the closest possible contact." Protective Food Values. Mr. Morrison said bread used to be regarded as the staff of life. To-day it was estimated -that befcad -did not form more than one-fifth of the diet of* Britain's poorest citizens. More and more people were beginning to realise the value to health of the protective foods, and in that regard fresh fruit and vegetables bulked very large. The Minister urged that the most scrupulous attention should be paid to the quality of English products. Speaking of the improvement that ' had already taken place, Mr. Morrison recalled that English fruit used to be the least well packed of any placed on the market. To-day that defect had been remedied to a great extent, and it was refreshing to think that last \eat a considerable quantity of English fruit had been exported abroad. Mr. Bruce suggested that a greater restriction should be placed on the importation of American and other foreign apples during the Australian and New Zealand season. In recent years the Dominions had limited the quantity of fruit exported to England, and he asked whether it was not "a bit of a tragedy that such a limitation should be imposed, since research had proved that fruit and vegetables were the two best protective foods. If the people of England could receive the greater quantities of fruit and vegetables that were available, the standard of living would be improved.

"Surely," said Mr. Bruce, "we are going to have the will to find ways and means whereby these necessary articles of diet can be brought to the people's benefit. It is a great human question, something that can bring untold benefit to millions of our fellow citizens throughout the world." Profound Respect for New Zealand. Mr. Nash told his audience that there was no country more British than New Zealand, and said he entirely agreed with the views expressed by Mr. Bruce. Far greater quantities of apples could be consumed in Great Britain if the people were to take the advice of "an apple a dayJ'

"I have been in England about four months now, and I must say that I have been profoundly astonished and pleased at the profound respect that the Old Country, its people and the members of its Government, have for the people of New Zealand," Mr. Nash continued. "I myself am a fifty-fifty man, for I was born in the Old Country, and have lived half my life in New Zealand. I know how New Zealand lives, and I know how the Old Country lives.

"There ought not to be anyone in the Old Country short of the things that money can enable them to buy if there are means which can enable them to have access to those things. We ought not to let our orchards lie idle while fruit is needed in England. New Zealand wants to do all the things that can be done to make the Commonwealth of Nations an example to the world."