THE PRICE OF CAULIFLOWERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 6

THE PRICE OF CAULIFLOWERS.

WHERE DOES THE PROFIT GO? A Nelson Grower Gets sd. for Six Sacks. Th'e lot' of the market gardener is evidently not of the pleasantest if the treatment a Nelson grower received at the hands of a Welliri&ton firm of auctioneers is any criterion. Mr T. Kingston, of Nelson, shipped six sacks of cauliflowers from Nelson by the Tasrnan on Friday, the 4th inst. The vegetables were freshly' cut that morning and were m good condition and perfectly free from blight, although most of them were on the small side. They were .consigned to Messrs Griffiths ■ and Co., Blair-street and should have reached them on Saturday morning. How long they were kept m Griffiths and Go's, store before being sold Mr Hingston doesn't know,- but the account sales is dated the 10th, five days later. The following is the statement; of sales :— s. d. s. d. s. d. By 2 sacks Cauliflowers 2 0 4 0 „ 2 „ „ 110 3 8 » 3 ii *• 16 3 0 10 8 Charges — __ Commission... 7,7 0 9 Freight ... ... 7 6 Cartage & Wharfage 2 0 10 3 Balance ... ... 0 5 ■A 1 whole fivepence for six sacks of cauliflowers. Mr Hingston m his letter states that this is a starvation price. We should say so. Starvation! It is galloping ruination. Fancy planting, watering, tending, cutting and shipping six sacks of cauliflowers for sd. The thing would be funny if it were not so pitiable. Even a Chinaman would starve at those prices.; There is evidently something rotten somewhere. If a Wellington housewife) were to enter a green grocer's shop' m Wellington' and ask for a cauliflower, she would have to pay for one as much as Mr Hingston got for six sackfuls. Where does the profit go ? Are the green grocers all becoming millionaires, and the Chows piling up coin at the expense of the white grower ? Griffiths and Co., for having the cauliflowers m their store and knocking, them down to some Chow, got nearly 100 per cent, more as commission that the poor grower gets altogether, although Griffiths and Co. won't get very fat on 9d commissions. Cauliflowers were quoted at the various markets on that date at from 10s to 18s - per sack, and yet here is a grower who is prepared to swear that although his cauliflowers were small they were perfectly sound and m good condition, and he can only average Is 9d per sack. Things must have been very rocky m the vegetable line that day and Griffiths and Cos. Chinese clients must have had a good innings. Why, they'd have been cheap at that price as pig's food. Surely this sort of thing should not pass by unnoticed. Here m Wellington arc hundreds of poor people who cannot afford to buy vegetables because of the high prices ruling, and across the Straits is a grower getting- 5d as a return for. his raising G sacks of good cauliflowers. The city toiler gets no vegetables because he can't afford them ; the country toiler starves because he cannot control his own market ; whilst the middle man waxes fat On the labor of both.