IMPORTATION OF ORANGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22743, 1 June 1937, Page 8

IMPORTATION OF ORANGES

There are two commendable things about the statement the actingMinister of Customs has made on the importation of oranges—it promises a removal of all restrictions at a time when there is no need for them, and it comes in ample time for importers to make their plans and place their orders. From and including the present month until the end of November the quantities to be imported from Australia will be controlled, with the object of assuring a sufficient return to growers in the Cook Islands. The •Minister says that should it prove necessary the present quota of Australian will be increased. The intention evidently is to sec that quantities are adequate and that prices do not soar to unreasonable heights. The Government is undertaking a sufficiently difficult and delicate task in endeavouring to control the market during this period, but it has at least a definite objective. After the end of November it will j make no attempt to regulate quanS tities. Importing will be free of i restraint until the end of April, so | long as the fruit measures up to ! requirements regarding freedom i from fly. This restoration of a free i market in a commodity for which there is an increasing public demand is a very refreshing turn in policy. If, during the coming summer, there is any shortage of supplies, it will lie because importers have misjudged the market, or because the fruit is not available for purchase. So the restiveness and discontent which the orange shortage last summer aroused will be avoided, to the benefit of the Government and the community. CHARTING THE COAST The arrival this month of the Admiralty survey ship Endeavour will be the preliminary to a very necessary work on the New Zealand coast and further afield. The Endeavour —a name significant in the earliest history of exploration, surveying and mapping in New Zealand waters —will spend a considerable time on this station resurveying the coast. The need for this work has long been emphasised. There is some ground for the contention that it has never been adequately done. Even if it had been, a coastal survey is not a permanent achievement; a chart, no matter how accurately made in the | first instance, is not free from the j need for correction. Coastlines j change under the influences of ! natural forces which cause shoals to ] rise where once there was deep | water, or scour deep channels where j previously no vessel save those of the lightest draught dared go. Harbour boards and the Marine Department keep a check on these movements so far as possible, but the more comprehensive survey of which the need has often been j proclaimed is beyond their powers. The coming of the Admiralty's j specialist ship, the Endeavour, is the j result of negotiations begun a con- j siderable time ago. The terms I arranged are favourable, indeed generous, from the New Zealand standpoint. This Dominion is required to provide coal and the cost of docking and refitting, including stores, while the Admiralty will be responsible for the pay and victualling of the company. This means, of course, that the Admiralty will provide the technical apparatus and experts for work which will be of the utmost value to New Zealand. It is another example of the Royal Navy doing that priceless and unostentatious service for which it has made itself quietly responsible through its long history.