DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 25 November 1936, Page 2

DEPARTMENTAL INQUIRY

INTO ORANGE SHORTAGE (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, This Day. Interviewed last evening in regard to the shortage of oranges and the position which has arisen in regard to prices, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister of Industries and Commerce, stated that he and his departmental officers had been giving attention to the problem. The Minister said he had been in telephonic communication with fruit interests throughout the Dominion. Following on these consultations, the Minister proposes to submit for the consideration of Cabinet to-day certain proposals for dealing with the situation. SHORT SUPPLY IN CHRISTCHURCH PRIME MINISTER’S PROMISE CHRISTCHURCH, 24th November. The high prices of oranges in Christchurch and their short supply have produced a situation which is rapidly developing. A deputation will wait on the Acting-Minister of Customs, the Hon> Mark Fagan, and the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, at Wellington to-morrow. A consumers’ petition of protest has been signed by a large number of people, and a boycott of this week’s Jamacian shipment has been discussed. By these means the Christchurch retail fruiterers are actively pursuing a campaign to secure an official investigation of the position. An assurance that steps would be taken to relieve the orange shortage if the Government found such action necessary was given by the Prime Minister, the Hon. M. J. Savage, in an interview by telephone this evening. Mr' Savage was told that the situation at Christchurch was so bad that oranges were retailing at 3d and 4d each and that in the South Island the available supply for the (next three weeks amounted only to 650 cases a week, compared with 4000 cases a week available to Christchurch alone when there was no embargo on Australian imports. “It is the first I have heard of any serious shortage,” the Prime Minister remarked, “but you can take it from me that if there is a shortage of those proportions, and if the people are being deprived of oranges, then we will try to alter it. If there is something the Government can do to relieve such a shortage as is claimed to exist then it will be done.”