The Fruit Embargo.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20903, 10 July 1933, Page 8

The Fruit Embargo.

The public meeting held in the Civic Theatre yesterday to protest against the embargo on the import of Australian citrus fruits probably did more harm than good to the cause it was attempting to further. With one exception, the speakers represented trade organisations with a direct financial interest in the removal of the embargo. They put their case reasonably enough; but the meeting can hardly be blamed for listening to them with mild scepticism. The one disinterested speaker destroyed the value of what he said by being foolishly indiscreet and controversial. In the circumstances it is not surprising that the meeting degenerated into a noisy farce. Yet it will be a pity if the incident distracts attention from a serious and disquieting problem. Citrus fruits are an important item in the national diet; and it is a very serious matter that at a time when the purchasing power of the community is heavily reduced, they should be scarce and expensive. Unfortunately the circumstances surrounding the imposition of the embargo have been obscure from the first; and subsequent events have added to the obscurity. Despite Mr Downie Stewart's denial, it seems clear that the embargo was originally meant as a retaliation against the Australian embargo on New Zealand potatoes. The question whether there was sufficient danger of powdery scab to warrant the Australian embargo, which was j the crucial question, could have been i decided by a committee of experts, i Instead, the dispute was handled, apparently unsuccessfully, by the politicians. The public was.told that Senator Massy Greene's visit had been " very useful" ; but it seems justifiable to conclude, from the absence of any more explicit statement, that Actually the visit brought the two Governments no nearer together. Since then it has been | rumoured that the New Zealand [ Government is negotiating for a I4nd* *gr*m*rtv .cararin*. *itru*

fruits, with the United States. Very unwisely, the meeting yesterday chose to discuss this rumour and to weigh the claims of Australian and United States fruit growers to a share of the New Zealand market. At the moment such discussions are as irrelevant as they are tactless. What consumers want, and what they are entitled to, is an assurance that, in any. negotiations on the subject, the I Government will keep foremost in kits mind the need for an adequate, regular, and reasonably cheap supply | of citrus fruits.