PURCHASE OF HONEY

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23913, 3 April 1943, Page 5

PURCHASE OF HONEY

•« STABILISATION PLAN OBSERVED” MINISTER’S STATEMENT OH PRICES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 2. “The Government’s stabilisation, pull has been fully observed in the price arrangement made for the purchase Of honey during the present season, ’ laid the Minister of Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) to-night. . ( , _ “Honey was one of the original .38 stabilised lines announced in 1940, and after a very careful examination of the average returns secured by the producers throughout the Dominion it wag decided that the prices finally announced by the Price Tribunal were fair and. reasonable.” he said. “In the case of South Island honey producers, the price payable by the department for this honey in bulk la approximately 6,73 d per lb, not old as quoted members of the Canterbury: branch of the National Beekeepers’''Association. “In the case of honey packed by producers on behalf of the department, payment equivalent to 8.97 d will’ be made. The department will also meet the cost of the levy stamp, equivalent to a further halfpenny per lb. “If producers have been securing prices exceeding the price order level during the last year they have virtually been operating on the black market or have been securing particular market preference? not available to producers gerierally. “As I previously stated, the community as a whole has definite rights in this ’ i matter. Through the Government they have supported ♦ the beekeepers with special preferences as regards Sugar, tyres, benzine, and manpower, and they are entitled to receive a share of the honey crop after priorities have been met at prices which are reasonable and at the same time fair to thf grower.” REPLY TO MINISTER Replying to the recent statement by the Minister of Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay) on the marketing of honey, Messrs Wood Brothers, of Rangiora, declare that Canterbury beekeepers never asked for control. Ori' the contrary, they state, they have al- ' ways opposed it. In a statement to “The Press,” these producers said that 70 per cent, of the honey had been commandeered at the price ruling during the pre-war period, and this, in their opinion, clearly broke the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser’s stabilisation order of last December. When first approached concerning the Government regulations, say Messrs Wood Brothers, the beekeepers’ association was definitely assured that they were purely and simply “one of a military commandeer,” and that they had nothing whatever to do with the policy of the Internal Marketing Division. “Now, the Minister has introduced the real reason—that more honey must pass through the division to ensure that this department shall pay at any cost,” they say. “Bringing the regulations in as a military commandeer was thought by the Minister to be the only way of achieving his object and overcoming all opposition. “Our association has always mad* it clear that if our product was necessary for the war effort, we were quit* prepared to give the hospitals, and the military and naval departments, first preference over our crops. This could easily be done without bringing in another exceedingly expensive middle man—the Internal Marketing Division.” Mr Barclay had now made the astonishing statement that beekeepers had been specially selected for treatment by making available to, them sugar, petrol, and tyres. “If the production of honey and beeswax is really required, and we were assured that this was so,” concluded Messrs Woods Brothers, “then producers must have petrol and tyres, etc., to enable them to work their many colonies spread throughout the countryside. As for the sugar, it is the only substitute wehave for keeping our stock alive when natural supplies of nectar are unavailable for the bees.” WANGANUI BEEKEEPERS* ATTITUDE (P.A.) WANGANUI. April 2, Wanganui commercial beekeepers will give full support to Canterbury producers in an lendeavour to obtain s fair deal under the Honey Emergency Regulations. Local beekeepers hjjve taken the matter up with the Prime Minister’s Department, pointing out that the price being paid by the Internal Marketing Division is below • the cost of production in the Wanganui district, and that if the regulations are enforced here hundreds of hive* will be abandoned or removed to better producing areas where overcrowd- | ing is bound to bo accentuated. . i