ISLAND FRUIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 129, 2 June 1936, Page 11

ISLAND FRUIT

GROWERS AND TRADERS

ELUSIVE PROFITS

COMMITTEE INQUIRY

Evidence by traders and growers, and by a scientist,, upon fruit wastage was heard by the Industries and Commerce Committee of the House of Re- 3 presentatives today in the matter of ' petitions from native growers in the : Cook Islands, one for an advisory , board and the other for the formation . of a fruit control board. Last week a large volume of evidence was taken and it is hoped to conclude the sitting this week. The chai :man of the Committee, Mr. W. J. Jordan, presided. . Auramaki Strickland,, a grower, and secretary of the Cook Islands Native Association, said that the price he got for his fruit was not worth the growing, let alone the picking and packing. A fruit board to hold all the fruit and arrange where it should go. would prevent the natives selling their whole crops to buyers at very low prices. "TO GET MONEY QUICK." "If we want some money," said wit-, ness, "we will sell our crop to a supercargo for anything he likes to give us, so as to get money quick. There would be nothing wrong with a fixed minimum price, provided the fruit control board were an elected one. "We are never allowed to elect ■ anybody," continued witness. "All '■ we know is that people are put on the fruit advisory board and everything else, by, we are told, the Minis- : ter, but white people who do not : grow much fruit are allowed to vote ; every three years for their people. ' We do not want a board we have no 1 means of electing, or no means of 1 criticising. We are asking for a fruit 1 board of which the Resident Commis- ! sioner should be chairman, and the ! Director of Agriculture to be a mem- ! ber. We want to vote for the other members on the board ourselves. The directors of the Cook Islands Native i Association believe that such a board

will do for us what the association had tried to do and could not doget the fruit to the open market." FRUIT WASTAGE. Evidence concerning the wastage in Cook Islands fruit was given by Dr. G. H. Cunningham, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, to show that deterioration of the fruit was due to fungi which attacked the orange skins. Although not familiar with the conditions under which the fruit was grown, this could be told from the diseases such as stem end rot, which appeared on the fruit. The witness gave technical evidence to show that wastage must be high when temperature and humidity conditions could not be controlled after the fruit was picked. There was considerable wastage in even the best grown of other oranges, but spraying would minimise stem end rot in Cook Islands oranges, and so lessen the wastage in them owing to the fungus. Given proper care of the trees and ; control of temperature and humidity conditions after picking, there was no reason why the Cook Islands should not export satisfactory fruit. Without ■ injury to the rind, due to careless 11 plucking, the fungi would find no entrance to the orange.

r> Robert McKegg, representing the 3 Rarotonga Fruit Exporters' Association of eight members/said that the s New Zealand members were A. B. •l Donald, Ltd., W. H. Grove and Sons, 3 Ltd., and Jagger and Harvey, Ltd. f Other members were two local indeT pendent trading firms, the Cook Islands 1 Trading Co., Ltd., and Bonar and i Shearman. Two independent native s trading and exporting companies, the y Rarotonga Fruit Co. and the Cook e Islands Native Association, were also s members, as was W. J. Wigmore, a i European planter. The buying comi mission earned was, for bananas 5d per case, oranges 6d per case, tomatoes 3d to 6d, when the- lo.b. price was fav,f ourable, otherwise nothing. He gave [. instances'of circumstances in which the ." exporters made losses. Had it not been -. for advances made to growers by trad- •- ing concerns the fruit industry would '. have been practically non-existent, d There was always the danger that adi- vances made for the planting of crops 2 , were used for other purposes, which d would result in losses.

LIKE STOCK AND STATION AGENTS. "The relations between native growers and the Cook Islands exporting and trading firms," said witness, "are similar in many respects to those existing between the New Zealand farmers and firms such as the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co. or Dalgety and Co. These firms make advances on the wool on the sheep's back, etc. I think the Cook Islands firms do more for their clients than New Zealand firms would, while they have no real security beyond the good faith of the natives." Witness quoted f.o.b. Rarotongan prices paid by traders for fruit ranging from 3s 5.19 d to 6s 6.8 d, and compared them with Samoan and Niue prices paid under Government control, revealing,-he said, that the Karotongan grower received a more favourable return for bananas than the Samoan or Niuean grower under Government control. Prices for oranges and tomatoes were also statistically dealt with as regards prices. He claimed that the Rarotongan fruit had been efficiently handled by the traders, and that their charges to clients for handling and consigning were very reasonable. There was no question that the quality of both oranges and bananas from Rarotonga was often unsatisfactory, and that if it were improved much better returns would be realised by growers. He was of the opinion that Government control of the fruit trade would not be so beneficial as improvement 01 the fruit. .. . Witness said that he had lived in the Islands for 25 years, and had.one of the largest fruit estates in Baro tonga. He exported fruit and conducted general trading as well, but though the copra market might improve, none ol his activities were invariably pfontr ab|\ He had been successful with exporting his own fruit, having put a good deal of money into importing new '. trees and improving old native trees, but it might take three years more before he would be in the position to ' say whether the outlay on the fruit- ; growing would be repaid. (Proceeding.)