BANANAS PLENTIFUL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20990, 29 September 1931, Page 5

BANANAS PLENTIFUL.

ISLAND TRADE PROSPECTS.

RECOVERY OF FIJI CROP.

IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY.

I , A shipment of 6000 cases of Fi]i bananas, stated to be the best quality lot which has reached New Zealand since the Islands were visited by hurricanes and' floods several months ago, was brought to Auckland by the Tofua yesterday. Fiji is the principal supplier of the New Zealand market and Fiji bananas are generally of the highest quality. However, since the crops suffered so severely from hurri anes and floods, there has been a falling-oft in the quality. There are cow definite signs that the industry is again on a good footing and the reviving effect of the floods is beginning to show in the quality of the fruit. "From now on plentiful supplies of bananas will reacli New Zealand," said Mr. E. C. Turner, a director of Turners and Growers, Limited, who returned by the Tofua from a business trip. "Tonga has thoughts of entering the market owing to the depressed state of the copra business. Conditions are not good at Nukualofa, the chief Tongan port, owing to the partial failure of the copra crop." Mr. Turner said the Tongan bananas would not be on the market until next year. There would also be plentiful supplies from Samoa and the Fiji season promised well. The Tofua §lso carried a large cargo of kumaras grown in Fiji and Tonga. ( ENTERPRISING TRADESMEN. INDUCEMENTS TO PURCHASE. PAYMENT OF HOTEL BILLS. A scheme has been devised by a group of Paris tradespeople whereby visitors who go to Paris to do some serious shopping may have free hotel accommodation. This has been launched by that very enterprising body, the Union of Shop- ! keepers of the Rue St. Honors, which is one of the oldest and busiest shopping thoroughfares in the capitaL The idea is to attract visitors to dp ■all their shopping in this street instead of spreading their patronage over various quarters of the city. Each person making a purchase will receive a note of the amount spent and should such notes from various members of the union total a given sum the customer will be invited :o occupy a bedroom with bathroom in a first-class hotel at the union's expense. The amount of money which must be spent before this novel bonus can be i secured ha 3 not yet been settled, but it is declared that the visitor in any case cannot lose anything, since the shopkeepers concerned have entered into a pact net to increase their prices.