ORANGES SCARCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23149, 22 September 1938, Page 12

ORANGES SCARCE

AUSTRALIAN SUPPLIES SMALL SHIPMENTS RECEIVED ISLANDS SEASON CLOSED With Australian fruit coming forward in small quantities and with the Matua's small shipment on Tuesday stated to mark the close of the export season in the Islands, oranges are at present in short supply in Auckland.The season for navel oranges in the Commonwealth is more or less over and the new crop of the later Valencia variety is not vet available. The scarcity of the fruit is commontod upon in a letter to the Hf-baid from a correspondent, in which it is stated that several days after the Wanganella arrived in Auckland on September 13 with a shipment of Australian oranges, the writer was unabte to buy a single case. She was informed, that the Primary Products Marketing Department had arranged for, the oranges to be placed, in cool storage which, she alleged, cost an extra Is 3d a case, while the public was left without the fruit. This, she considered, must be a loss to the Government or an unnecessary expense t» the public. For the past month, only small consignments of Australian oranges hare been arriving in Auckland and the quantity of Islands fruit which wag brought by the Matua was only about half the expected shipment. The last consignment of Australian friiit was not sufficient to meet requirements, and the proportion which had been shipped in cool storage was retained- iii this condition and rationed, in order to supply the. market until the arrival of the Maunganui with another small shipment on Saturday. However, very few cases of fruit now remain in Auckland. . • "