HIGH COST OF FOODS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 39, 16 February 1943, Page 5

HIGH COST OF FOODS

AGITATION IX AUSTRALIA 0 SYDNEY, Feb. 5. The chairwoman of the Housewives' Association of New South Wales. Mrs. Glcncross, has accused the Minister of Trade and Customs, Senator Keane. of failing to use any powers to fix a ceiling price for fruit and vegetables. "We have had an almost heart-breaking controversy with the Prices Commissioner, Professor Copland, and Senator Keane on the matter." said Mrs. Glencross. She gave instances of exceptionally high prices being charged for fruit and vegetables, and said that complaints wero "pouring" into the association's office from all sections of the public. "Children are suffering from scurvy, and the resistance of men and women have been lowered through lack of sufficient of these necessary foods," Mrs. Glencross continued. "I consider the Prices Commissioner, so far as foods are concerned. has been a total failure. Most fruits have been picked by women of the Land Army at lower wages than those paid to men, yet the prices are beyond the reach of the average middle class people."