PRICES FIXED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1940, Page 8

PRICES FIXED.

SALE IN DOMINION. MINISTER'S STATEMENT. (By Telegraph.—Prose Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. . Explaining the price order which has just been issued, fixing the maximum wholesale price for potatoes on a basis of £4 10/ a ton, f.o.b. South island ports, the Minister of Supply, the Hon. J->. G. Sullivan, said that this action had been taken following the partial lifting of the embargo on potatoes by the Commonwealth Government. The Government, said Mr. Sullivan considered that the public should not be by any export arrangements, especially as such an important item of foodstuffs was involved. The price fixed was based on current market values, providing the producer with a reasonable return. The public could rest assured, he said, that e\ery possible step was bein** taken to keep the cost of living down."

The first the public heard of any move by the Commonwealth Government to lift the embargo on Dominion potatoes was a cable last Wednesday from Launcheston, Tasmania, statin'"' that the chairman of the Tasmanian Patato Marketing Board had announced that the Federal Government had decided to import 5000 tons of potatoes from New Zealand. They would be placed on the Australian 'market, the message added, in July, August and September. Then a Press Association message from Wellington, the following dav, recorded an interview with the Minister of Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, in which the Minister was reported to have said: "No arrangement has been made between the New Zealand and Australian Governments for the export of potatoes to Australia." Asked if negotiations were proceeding, the Press. Association message added, tho Minister replied that that was the case, but he did not know when any arrangement for the export of potatoes would t>e. expected.