TOO MANY ORANGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 12

TOO MANY ORANGES.

COMPLAINT BY IMPORTERS. COOK ISLAND CONSIGNMENTS. WITHDRAWAL OF SHIP LIKELY. Arising out of complants by .wholesale fruit dealers in Auckland and Wellington that the markets are being overstocked through heavy shipments from the Cook Islands, the Union Steam Ship. Company will probably .withdraw the steamer Ngakuta from the trade for the remainder of the season after her .trip from Auckland on September 23. "As a large quantity of oranges, landed by the Ngakuta on her last trip to Auckland and by the mail steamer Tahiti at Wellington, has not yet been disposed of •and is still in cold storage in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, importers are desirous that shipments of oranges should be curtailed,", reads a statement issued by the company yesterday. "As the local market is capable of absorbing only a certain quantity of fruit each trip, we understand merchants are approaching the Government and tho Union Company to bring about the desired change." Referring ,to the failure of the retail demand for oranges to absorb the wholesale supplies, a local importer stated yesterday that if the position were not considered immediately they would have to cease buying altogether. At present importers were not allowed enough consideration in their imports, with the result that tho fruit boats were. bringing large supplies of oranges, a great part of which remained unsold on the arrival of the next shipment. The orange season at Rarotonga was almost over and the maximum number of cases which could be picked, sorted and packed efficiently for each shipment from the other islands was 5000 at Aitutaki, 4000 at Atiu and 4000 at Mauke. However, the shipments landed had been much larger, the Ngakuta bringing about 30,000 cases on her last trip to Auckland. "We feel the public are not 1 buying fruit for some reason or , other, although the oranges are better than they have been for a couple of years," the importer said. '-Retailers find they are not getting the demand, so we have to cut our cloth according to our material. We want to keep .the island fruit trade going but we cannot keep ordering at a loss. The Auckland merchant has to pay for cases,, paper for wrapping and native" - labour. The native has not the money to do the work and otherwise would not bother about shipping his fruit at all. For this reason we want the Government to cooperate regarding supplies and unless we are assisted by ,the shipping company, in landing reasonably limited supplies the trade will have to-cease."- • It. was stated the market for island oranges was weaker in Wellington than ,in Auckland. Of the last .'shipment of 10,000 cases landed: by the mail' steamer-, at Wellington, oranges. were sold at 2s to 4s a case below landed cost. In addition the Auckland market was flooded by the last shipment here, and importers now wanted to stipulate what the size of future ship-ments-would be. • •