RAROTONGAN FRUIT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 208, 30 May 1936, Page 8

RAROTONGAN FRUIT

Traders and Merchants’ Views on Industry PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY Information about profits aud losses made by merchants trading with the Cook Islands was given yesterday at the resumed Parliamentary inquiry Into the Rarotongan fruit industry. .Mr. IV. 11. Rice, director of Radley and Co., Ltd., Auckland, fruit and produce auctioneers, said that his firm had for many years been engaged in the distribution of fruit from the Cook Islands, first by direct purchase from growers, but of recent years as purchasers f.o.b. or e.i.f. and to a lesset extent as consignee of fruit to he sold to best advantage for the consignor. During 1934-35 it had purchased a total of 18,728 cases of oranges at an average landed e.i.f. cost of 11/- a case. Some of these were sold with all faults as discharged from the ship, but the majority were taken into store and repacked, as the condition was usually such as to prohibit them being stored either in ordinary store or in cool storage. This waste had accounted for a loss of one in seven over the two-year period. The average gross profit for the same period was 1/2 a case, or 9.6 per cent, on the turnover. Handling and Packing. Mr. Rice urged that special attention should be paid to the ratio of loss, which experience showed was very near constant. over each shipment. His knowledge of citrus fruit suggested that there was a serious fault somewhere along the line of handling and packing. Close examination of individual fruits disclosed that the majority of the fruit yas not severed from the tree in the manner adopted in other orange-growing areas, and that it had been roughly plucked from the tree and badly bruised in handling. Of 63,787,9501 b. of oranges imported from the Cook Islands during the last 10 years, 4,500,0001 b. had been lost to the consumer, and that after purcliase and transport charges had been paid. Mr J. B. Donald, managing-director of A.’ B. Donald, Ltd., Auckland, fruit merchants and island traders, said that sixty years ago his father started the Rarotonga fruit trade, fruit being brought over in schooners. He himself had been brought up in the business. A shipment of 6170 cases of oranges from the Cook Islands in 1934 cost him £2455, and sold at a profit of £49, or an average of, 2d. a case; 1860 cases handled in 1935 cost £7S6, and sold for £798, a profit of £l2, or an average of 14d. a case. The cost of 10,033 cases of oranges shipped from Rarotonga to the South Island was £8691. They sold-for £9259, a profit of £568. or 1/1 a case. A tomato shipment of 4364 boxes to Wellington in 1934 cost £1254, and sold for £1525, a profit of £271, or 1/3 a case; another shipment in 1935, of 12,131 boxes, cost £2663, and sold for £2297, a loss of. 74. a box. Over six years’ trading a profit of £420 a year had been made on fruit, but the average loss over the whole of the trading was £lOOO. The figures, of course, covered largely the slump period. Protection Sought. The need for a regular steamer service was advocated by Mr. Donald. If Australian oranges were admitted free of duty, the Cook Islands oranges would not find a market in New Zealand, he said. Unless protection was given to the Islands trade no improvement in the shipping service would be of use. He suggested that a duty of Id. a lb. should be placed on oranges from all parts of the world, other than the Cook Islands, as from April 1 to October 31. He did not think a control board would be satisfactory, although he favoured a committee on the Islands. Mr. A. L. Macfarlane, managing director of Macfarlane and Co., Ltd., Christchurch, said that buyers in the South Island preferred Australian fruit, because the freight was very much cheaper. Rarotongan oranges were of poor quality. What was required was a gradual reconstruction of the industry in the islands. When that had been accomplished and the people of New Zealand were able to get good oranges at a reasonable price, then it would be time to talk about a duty on Australian oranges. Shipping Charges. Mr. G. S. Radley, director of Radley Bros. Ltd., Christchurch, said that his firm had lost money over three years’ trading. It cost 4/8 a case for shipping charges from Rarotonga to Lyttelton. The same sized case could be imported from Melbourne to Lyttelton for 2/- and from Jamaica for 5/74. The Jamaican case had a slightly larger cubic capacity. He urged better shipping arrangements for the South Island. Mr. F. W. Platts, Hamilton, formerly Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands, referred to the duties of the New Zealand Government to what had been declared an integral part of the Dominion, and insisted that there should be provided a Government vessel to convey officials and medical officers round the group and to gather copra and other cargoes from the islands to a central shipping depot at Rarotonga. The northern islands particularly were far out of reach of regular medical aid, and the doctors, like other officials, could only visit them on the sporadic calls of the two trading schooners which formed the only means of communication in the group. There was an opening for a vessel like the Maui Pomare, which could at the same time carry Government officers and crops.

Evidence in support of the petition for

a control board was given by Mr. Alec Napa, a native of Rarotonga, who said that the small margin of profit the growers received kept them poor. They did not want to work for nothing for ever. Mr. W. P. Brown, a Rarotongan planter for 30 years, and a member of the Island Council, also supported the establishment of an elective fruit board. The natives, he said, found it very difficult to pay their debts, and under the present system they could never hope to get out of debt. ’’Give us a vessel like the Maui Pomare and we will provide you with fruit equal in quality to that from Samoa or Niue,” added Mr. Brown. ‘T think that is Hie solution of the problem.” The committee adjourned until 10.30 a.in. on Tuesday next.