SCARCITY OF FRUIT. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 34, 10 February 1908, Page 8

SCARCITY OF FRUIT. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir,— l notice in your issue of the 6th a letter from "Modern Uoth" lamenting the fact that we were not competing with Tasmania in shipping apples to London. Now 1 , Sir, surely this oraze of wanting to fiend everything we produce to the Okt Country should be stopped or regulated by Parliament. If the people in tho towns of New Zealand had the option of buying the apples at a fair and reasonable price, and there was a surplus over and above local requirements, it -would be only right and proper to seek outside markets, but the fact remains that the nearest approach to an apple that most of the people of this city can get, is a look at them in the shop windows. Where is the working man that can afford to pay 6d or Ed per lb for apples, and you cannot get a decent eating apple under that price at any time of the year in Wellington, while the markets at Home arc glutted with apples from all parts of tho earth. Canaaa and America pour more apples 11110 England in one week than we could gend in a year, and lovely dessert apples equal if not superior to any we can produco in New Zealand, and they are retailed at Home for 2cl or 3d a lb. It makes one tired to hear some\people talk about what we can do and produce in New Zealand. In the matter of fruit wo., surely ought to keep silent. Anyone who has been out of New Zealand knows, judging by what we see in the shops and the prices, that New Zealand is one of the most poverty-stricken countries in rhe world for fruit. It is only , fqr about two months in the year that we have any to talk about, for the other ten months of the year our shops are a standing rebuke to us ; nothing but the Fiji banana, to fall back on. Tho same thing applies to the butter ; ship it all for London and starve the New Zealand market. — I am, etc , APPLE-LESS. Wellington, 7th February, 1903.

A meeting held under the auspices of the New Zealand Socialist party took place at His Majesty's Theatre last evening. Tbcro was a largo attendance. An address was delivered by Mr. R. Hogg. . In the course of his remarks, he criticised the portion of the Premier's address at. Auckland which was devoted to the Socialist movement. Charges of assaulting a constable in the execution of his duty were brought in the Magistrate's Court to-day against Charles O'Neill and Hugh Mullins, Mr. Riddell, S.M., sentenced each of the accused to fourteen days' imprisonment, with hard labour. O'Neill, who was also arrested for drunkenness, was classed a habitual drunkard and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. Mullins, also charged with inebriety, was fined 20s, in default seven days' imprisonment. At its monthly meeting on Wednesday night, the Onslow Borough Council will deal with the question of a site for the proposed septic tank at Kaiwarra, and also the proposed division of the Noith Ward. Messrs. Dwan Bros, advertise a residence on Wellington-terrace for sale.