The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1926. RESTRICTING FRUIT SUPPLIES.

Evening Star, Issue 19330, 17 August 1926, Page 6

The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1926. RESTRICTING FRUIT SUPPLIES.

A feeling of exasperation with the methods' of trade must have been provoked by a message from Auckland towards the end of last week. The shipments of fruit from the Cook Islands, oranges being specially mentioned, have recently been so heavy that the Union Steam Ship Company is likely to withdraw the steamer Ngakuta from the trade for the rest of the season as from a date in September, It is said that the last two shipments of oranges were in excess of market requirements, and the-surplus has gone into cold storage in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. Since it was thought worth while to stove them, it must he assumed that their condition was good. Why not, one is inclined to ask, allow the consumer to have the benefit of the over-supply, instead of curtailing the amount available for him now and cancelling future shipments? The plea put forward by the importers is that the local markets are capable of absorbing only a certain quantity of fruit each trip, therefore the merchants are approacliing the Government and the Union Company to lessen the number of trips. It is quite true that the local markets are capable of absorbing only certain quantities at the prices charged to the consumer. Fruit is so dear as to be a luxury beyond the reach of all but the com-fortably-situated, except on very special occasions. It appears to us that this proposal to reduce sailings is nothing more nor less than the pursuance of a set policy to keep prices artificially high. There are continual complaints about the unsatisfactory position of the fruit trade, but when information such as this as to how it is conducted ’ comes to light the sympathy of the public with importers is quite alienated. All the propaganda to get the public into the fruit-eating habit is nullified by the deliberate keeping of fruit out of the people’s reach when it is available in quantity. The people’s appetite is there, but it has to he disappointed because of the rigid limitations on appetite imposed by the pocket. There was surely in this latest glut an opportunity for testing the markets further south than Christchurch. Because of the, prevalence of influenza there has been a special opening for the disposal of oranges. But their price has been repellent to some and prohibitive to others. There may not have been the barc-facccl exploitation of the consumer which many people still bitterly recall in connection with the serious epidemic of a few years ago. There may not have been any extra tightening np of prices at all on this occasion in response to a special demand, possibly for the reason that prices would not stand any tightening without sales seriously falling off and ullages mounting. The aim of the vendor' appears to be that the public must be got accustomed to “ standardised ” prices for fruit. If any conditions threaten warranting a lowering of that standard, those conditions must be manipulated lest there be a serious setback in the education of the public. But what is the use of educating the public to look in the deftly-arranged shop windows, note the price tickets, and pass on with a sigh over the unattainable? We understood that the fruit trade wished the public to he educated to eat fruit. The education system adopted appears to us to be a mouldy joke. If prices were not controlled as they are the trade would speedily realise the real extent of “ the ability of the local markets to absorb supplies.” Both wholesale and retail sections of the trade are blameworthy, and until they recast their policy and methods the public is unlikely to waste a moment’s thought on any of their grievances, the latest of : which in the retail trade is the pressure of landlords, who, by the usual rent-raising methods, appear desirous of materially reducing the number of fruit .shops in this town. In the matter of transport the decision of the Government to place an up-to-date vessel in the islands trade may prove of benefit, but any benefit is hardly likely to filter through to the consumes unless marketing

undergo a change. In the larger Australian cities the existence of largo public markets is a wonderful factor in keeping down household expenditure. They are patronised not only by tho masses, but by the classes. One of the newer features of city life there is tho daily visit to market for the purchase of all kinds of supplies for the household, even patrician household. The cause of this development is not far to seek. The law of supply and demand is a natural law, and mankind and womankind have an urge against lawbreaking by other people, especially when tho lawbreaking consists in manipulation of supplies so as to deceive the ignorant into thinking that tho law is operating all right. Producers. also like to manipulate supplies. Last week tho tomato growers of New Zealand approached tho Government to prohibit importations of Ilarotongan tomatoes after a certain date, so that there should be no overlapping of imported and local supplies, no competition to lower tho fancy prices which tho earlyseason fruit used to command from long purses. As lie answered this request, so might Sir Maui Pomare answer the approach to tho Government for cancellation of steamer sailings to restrict orange supplies—i.e., by asking whether the Cook Islands are a part of New Zealand or whether our annexation of them leaves them a foreign country to bo subjected to hostile trade treatment.

Tho trouble is a world-wide one. It is acute in Britain. It has recently impelled an experienced investigator to write as follows:—“Town folk of modest means cannot obtain the country produce they need. New-laid eggs, fresh vegetables, fruit, butter, honey—all tho commodities that tho smallholder can produce in abundance—lie beyond their reach, not because of the cost of production or a reasonable profit 1 on that cost, but because the forces of tho middleman intercept tho good things on their road from producer to consumer. What tho rich will buy is sold, what remains is destroyed—:o

maintain prices. ... At present it is common knowledge that wholesaler;, and retailers alike preler to do a small trade at a largo profit rather than a largo trade at a small profit. They will tell you, if they ho candid as well as unscrupulous, that it pays them better and that the consumer is no concern of theirs.” This may make unpleasant reading, especially the wilful destruction of good' food and the reason. The cancellation of steamer sailings with the islands has a much softer sound. It does not amount to the destruction of oranges at this end, but it docs amount to that at the despatch end. For what is the Cook Island grower to do with his surplus? It has also to bo remembered that in the subject we have been touching on is to ho found the most fruitful source of class bitterness. The worker who has had Jus wages raised any time in the past decade by the Arbitration Gout angry and discouraged when lie finds that the suppliers of his needs aigue riiat. as he has more money to they must have their share of it by charging him higher prices. If others give him as little as they can for his money ho is not thereby pnt in the frame of mind to give as much as lie can lor his wages. Their purchasing power has declined until he is, despite their advancement on paper, no better od than when he started, possibly worse c(f, facing as he does an army of price manipulators of all grades, high and lowly. There is no real justification for their purchasing power having been eaten into to the extent which it has been.