CONTROL AND PRICES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 October 1924, Page 8

CONTROL AND PRICES.

WILL NOT BE ELEVATED. “IGNORANT ARGUMENT.” “Slighting references to £ a Government sanctioned trust,’ and the fears expressed for the interests of the consumer, are quite familiar to those who remember the agitation of self-interest-ed parties over the dairy and meat measures. the practical working of which the assertions of the crit'cs” (states tne executive of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation). “The greatest desire of organised fruitgrowers is to extend the use of fruit, to take it out of the category of a luxury, and to provide a steady supply of this healthful food at a reasonable price. Artificial raising of prices of a perishable product will not achieve this end, nor will it enable the growing production of fruit from our orchards to be absorbed by the. public. “It argues a complete ignorance of the wider aspects of business to suggest that any control system will lever up the prices on the London market. Better returns will only be secured) by a high-class product, attractively presented. and handled in the most economical mannc-r from grower to consumer. Our organisation, hard as we have all worked to perfect it, has failed to fully achieve this ideal, hence the strong demand for a Control Bill.”