SUPPLIES OF ORANGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22695, 6 April 1937, Page 10

SUPPLIES OF ORANGES

ORGANISING AT RAROTONGA STATE OFFICER'S MISSION [by telegraph—OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON, Monday The Secretary to the Cook Islands Department, Mr. S. J. Smith, is proceeding to Rarotonga on the Matua this week under instruction from the actingMinister in charge of the Cook Islands Administration, the Hon. F. Langstone, in order to organise the growers of the group, so that there will be regular shipments of oranges to New Zealand, properly graded. The whole export from the Cook Islands group is being controlled by the Government, which is offering a fixed price to growers sufficient to induce them to improve their plantations and maintain supplies for the monthly shipments by the Matua. It is expected that 80,000 cases will be shipped to New Zealand during the season commencing in May and ending in September.

Under this scheme, the oranges will be made available to the trade at a fixed price, and the distribution of shipments will be according to a quota based on population, every centre from Invercargill to Auckland being covered by the distribution scheme, which has tne approval of the fruit dealers. Organisation has been thorough at the New Zealand end, and it is now the task of the Government officer to induce natives to overcome their disappointments of the past, and, working ou a remunerative basis, improve their plantations. During the orange export season the Island steamer Matua will call at Rarotonga and the outlying islands of the group every month, proceeding direct with the fruit to New Zealand. This itinerary will take a fortnight, and in the remaining part of the month the Matua will make the usual trip to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji.