RARATONGA BANANAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 April 1938, Page 6

RARATONGA BANANAS

GROWERS OPPOSE FIXED PRICE

[■PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

AUCKLAND, April'lB

As a protest against the Government’s controlled! price of 3/6 a case for bananas, native and white growers on the island of Rarotonga have refused io cut their crops, with the result that when the Matua arrived at Auckland she brought only 728 cases from that island, instead of the 2500 expected. “The fruit has been left to rot on the plantations,’’ said Mr J. F. Jones, of Hastings, who returned! to the Dominion, by the Matua. Inquiries showed that the cargo space which had been allotted to Rarotonga was filled with bananas from Samoa, from where 10,207 cases swelled the shipment to the almost record total of 26,003 cases of fruit. Mr Jones said the action of the New Zealand Government in fixing the price at 3/6 a case had been greatly resented by Rarotongan traders and growers, who had 1 held several meetings recently and decided to circulate petitions to be sent to the Government, and to the ‘Opposition, stating that, the price set was uneconomic, and urging a review of the situation. “The island'ersi are upset over the new price,” he continued. “From what I have been told it costs about 4/- to produce, pack, and place on board a case of bananas, and for some years traders have received from 4/6 to 5/-, which gave them a reasonable margin. They say the price they would receive from. New Zealand under the new regulations would not be worth their while.” Among the shipment of 26,003 cases of fruit brought to Auckland by the Matua, in addition to the 1 10,207 cases of bananas from Samoa and 728 from Rarotonga, were 997 from Tonga (Nukualofa and 1 Vavua), and 9603 from Suva, as well as 4468 cases of citrus fruit from Suva. AH of these are to be unloaded here.