FRUIT EXPORT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19505, 29 December 1928, Page 12

FRUIT EXPORT.

BOARD AND MINISTER. AN ORDER FROM GERMANY. [THE PBSSS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, December 28. The various export Control Boards of New Zealand may perhaps feel a little anxious about their powers under the Ward Government, if what has happened recently in connexion with the Fruit Control Board can be accepted as a criterion of the new Administration's future policy. All sorts of rumours have been current during the past week or so concerning the refusal of the Fruit Control Board to grant the necessary authority for the f.o.b. supply of New Zealand apples to a German firm. Special enquiries concluded by the "Dominion" to-day show that shortly after Mr G. W. Forbes assumed the portfolio of Agriculture, he was advised by a certain firm of Wellington merchants that a well-known Hamburg firm, Messrs Lutten and Co., desired to purchase, at a price, 30,000 cases of New Zealand apples. Under the terms of the Fruit Control Act, however, fruit cannot be exported from New Zealand without the agreement of the Control Board. The new Minister for Agriculture was accordingly requested to ask the Board to give the' necessary authority for the purchase and subsequent export. It is understood that Mr Forbes, who at that time had been less than a fortnight in office, wrote to the Board indicating that, in his opinion, the necessary authority should be granted. At the time the alleged offer for the f.o.b. purchase was received, however, the Fruit Control Board (the enquiries further reveal) .had already arranged for the consignment of 100,000 cases of the same quality fruit to Eotterdam for distribution in the various northern European markets, including Hamburg. In those markets the apples would be sold at current market rates. As is well known, the Control Board is responsible for the distribution of the fruit for export of, roughly, 600 growers, and it is clear that had it agreed to the proposition of the' Minister for Agriculture, only a handful of growers could have participated in the sale in view of its size. A special meeting of the Board was held to consider the proposal of the Minister, and after full consideration the Board, it is gathered, decided that while a few growers might benefit, it was unable in the interests of the growers as a whole to agree to the f.o.b. order. Another factor which is j understood to have influenced the Board was the knowledge that the acceptance of the order could easily result in the fruit being sold in Hamburg at prices that might be detrimental to the other New Zealand fruit sent on consignment. The decision of the Board has been conveyed to the Government from whom, through the Minister for Agriculture, the next move, if any, must come. Publication of the foregoing information will, no doubt, raise in the minds of Dominion growers generally grave concern as to what future lies ahead of their Board. "Is this not the thin end of the wedge, and a preliminary to the repeal of the compulsory clauses of the Act?" is the question-many will doubtless ask. The answer can be given only by Mr G. W. Forbes, who, at present, is in the South Island. The secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Mr C. A. Berendsen, returned to Wellington from Samoa on Thursday. At the instance of the Administrator of Western Samoa, Colonel S S. Allen, Mr Berendsen, in association with the Public Service Commissioner, Mr P. Verschaffelt, ana Mr A. D. Park, assistant secretary to the Treasury, enquired into the finance and staffing of the Samoan Civil Service. It is expected, as a result of the enquiry that certain recommendations will be made to the Government. When the Wabine arrived at Wellington from Lyttelton at 5.50 a.m. on Wednesday there were only three taxis at the wharf to deal with over 500 passenger's. One of the passengers on arrival in the city accosted a sleepv taxi-driver on one of th« stands, and informed him of the harvest he was missing. Rubbing his eyes the driver said: "That's all right; you can/t pull mv leg. Wabine isn't due till 7." "Well, seeing that I've just arrived in her, perhaps you will admit that I am right," was the reply. Then the taxidriver began to wake up, started his engine, and raced for the ferry wharf, hut before he reached there most of the passengers had departed. The quick run was made by the ferry steamer so as to eive ample time here for the trip to Picton: hut, as the weather turned out to be wet with a rising sea, in the Strait, the excursion was abandoned.