Motueka Says Barclay Bid Not Tell All

Northern Advocate, 24 September 1943, Page 6

Motueka Says Barclay Bid Not Tell All

Further information concerning a -statement made by the Minister for Agriculture and Marketing (Hon. J. G. Barclay), when broadcasting to New Zealand from Whangarei last Thursday, was placed before electors by Mr. A. J. Murdoch, National candidate for Marsden, when speaking at a meeting in the Whangarei Town Hail last night. Mr. Murdoch said that he had received from Motueka by air mail a letter which it was desired should be placed before the electors. During his broadcast, Mr. Barclay had read a telegram received from Major C. F. Skinner, member for Motueka, in which tho following statement had been attributed to Mr. Tait, vice-president of the Hills Fruitgrowers Union: “Let me say right away that every fruitgrower is grateful for the assistance given to us by the Government at the outbreak of the war when, with our exports gone, we faced ruin. The Government came to our rescue, established the 1.M.D., and instituted orderly marketing and saved the fruit industry.” Remainder of Statement He then quoted the remainder of the letter as follows: “This telegram was most misleading as Mr. Barclay failed to quote the balance of the statement made by Mr. Tait, which read as follows:

“ ‘We accepted as a war measure the price paid then, but we now find that, as

the war lengthens out and the cost of living increases, we cannot grow fruit at the ptvsent price.’ “Mr. Tait said he knew of six young married men with two to seven children who had left the orchards to work for wages, and he personally knew of 10 orchard workers who had transferred to other work after 10 to 20 years’ experience. It took years to become an orchardist and something would have to be done to prevent the drift from such a valuable industry. "Even today apples are being rationed, and this after a season that produced a big crop. Next year , with the same demand, and we know that Nelson, the largest apple-producing district in New Zealand, will drop from 1.000,000 to 600.0 CC cases, it looks to me as if we are going to have a famine in apples.”