NEW MARKETING REGULATIONS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23812, 4 December 1942, Page 4

NEW MARKETING REGULATIONS

APPLES AND PEARS

OPPOSITION MEMBERS OBJECT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, December 3. Members of the Opposition objected to clauses in the Apple and Pear Marketing Regulations, and those dealing with the marketing of bobby calves when the Agricultural Emergency Regulations Confirmation Bill came before the House of Representatives today for the second reading. The Opposition called for a division on the second reading, which was passed by 39 votes to 24. and the bill went through committee, was given the third "reading, and passed. The Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. J. G. Barclay), outlining the bill on the second reading, said that the Apple and Pear Marketing Regulations were designed to some extent to stop the black marketing which was going on to some extent at the present time in those commodities. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) asked that the regulations prohibiting the sale of apples by producers to consumers in more than two case lots should be altered to permit the sale of five cases, and he also asked for the deletion of the clause providing lor the regrading of fruit within 14 days of its delivery to the department. He also took strong exception to another clause throwing the onus of proof in prosecutions under the regulations upon the defendant. The Minister said that Mr Hollands first two requests would be considered, and he thought, could be met “pretty well 100 per cent." The clause regarding the onus of proof, however, would have to stand, because the department had tried to get convictions time after time but the retailers suspected had just laughed at the departmertt, having bought probably 50 per cent, of the fruit through ordinary channels, and the other 50 per cent, not through those channels. The department could not prove which was which.