IMPORTED ONIONS

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22600, 4 January 1939, Page 5

IMPORTED ONIONS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS Sir, —At the present time the retail price of onions is 3d per lb or £2B a ton. The majority of the onions that ■were used for the stuffing of the Christmas poultry and sucking pigs were imported either from Canada or Japan. At the present time much is said and written about local industry, but as to the supply of onions locally grown, the neglect appears to be that of ignorance or indifference. I have no statistics to base my calculations upon, but shall we say there have been 1000 tons of onions imported into New Zealand during the last three months. Place the purchase price at ijd per lb, which is equal to £l4 a ton. Thus you can comprehend what the loss is to New Zealand, viz., (£14.000. My critics will say we need Ijhe onions, and seeing local ones do not Ivecp, wc are forced to import. This iili my answer to the above. At one j)Slace in Richmond there are onions mipwing measuring more than lOin m divtumference. which could have been tawvested two weeks ago. They are Aljlsa Craig, and were sown last March. Thifc soil is good, has been well manu'ifed and cultivated, and is well dtsbined. I estimate that an acre equal tirthese onions would produce 20 tons —total returns from one acre. £2BO. — Yours, etc-. 'll. S. PHILPOTT. December 30. 1938.