POTATO PRICES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 143, 18 June 1915, Page 8

POTATO PRICES

The sharp rise in the price of potatoes recently induced the Prime Minister to state that if the heavy purchases of the last few days on Australian orders are continued he may have to prohibit the export. He is obtaining from the Department the quantities likely to bo available in this country, but he fears that exact statistics are not obtainable. Potatoes at present are quoted at* : North Island Jines, £6 10s; Southern, £7 to £7 10s a ton. Australian prices have been given as £6 10s to £7, and a further rise must take place before it will pay Australian importers to purchase from New Zealand and pay the duty of £1 a ton freight.

Mr. A. F. Lowe, who becomes Clerk of the House of Representatives, is wellknown outside Parliamentary circles, chiefly for the help he has given to the Wellington Acclimatisation Society. lie has been hon. secretary of the society for many years, and has had a good deal to do with the stocking of the streams of tho province with trout. Mr. Lowe joined tho staff of the Tlouse of Representatives in 1885, and has heen continuously in the service over sinco. Like his predecessor. Mr. Otterson. he has filled every position, from that of a committee clerk, in which capacity he entered the service of tho State. There is at present not a member of the House who wae sitting when he first joined. He has undoubtedly seen a good many political changes. Mr. Lowe was born m the year 1862. and was educated at Nelson College arid in. England, lie, is another of the many earlier scholars of t.he Nokon College who ha.ye risen to hitch place* in Ike Stato iservics,