ORANGES FOR SALE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 155, 2 June 1937, Page 11

ORANGES FOR SALE.

OBJECTION TO PRICE. RETAILERS NOT BUYING. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, June 1. There are oranges for sale on the Wellington market to-day but they are not being bought. Retailers find themselves unable to agree that . the price fixed by the Government is a reasonable one and when the fruit was put up for auction there was no response from members of the Retail Fruiterers’ Association. The oranges are the first shipment from the' Cook Islands and arrived at Auckland by the Limerick, being railed to Wellington.

The Government fixed the price at from 14s to 21s per case according to, count and the association at a meeting this morning decided that members could not handle tlie oranges unless the price was reduced 2s 6d per case on the ground that the fruit was not in good condition. One Owner of a barrow seized the opportunity by buying 35 cases for sale in the citv streets. The decision of the Government that the price of oranges could not be varied was conveyed to the .Retail Fruiterers’ Association later in the day. The Government’s view was that it was simply the agent of the growers. The Government had no intention of making a profit out of the transaction nor was it intended to return unduly high prices to the growers. The Government price of 14s applied to case containing 326 oranges which were the largest size oranges available. A case containing 252 could be obtained for 19s.