A FRUIT TRUST.

NZ Truth, Issue 144, 21 March 1908, Page 6

A FRUIT TRUST.

" Not Chows, but Caucasians this Time.

This earnest; and; iJluin-spokQn paper has every reason to believe that a hue;e"fruit':monoi)ol^ is on the eVe of. Weing bGin m Christchurch, as the* resilit of a .fell conspiracy between; t he auctioneers on one hand and the fruiterers en the other. .Six orj. right _ months ago the auctioneers desired "Truth' 1 to notify the fact, anth spread the ' filad tidings, that they) had boycotted tho loathsome Chow, 'Who couldn't buy fruit- for love or money, ami the circumstance .was mentioned wiih pride to a clean-liv-ing while populace. 'But eager as 1 Truth" is to • discourage the yellow ? .■i.eny, it is alcp a thorough hater of the trust and the monopoly, and it isn't going to suffer their development without directing public attenlion to the budding evil. ' This paver is inform e-U, and our representative has had optical demonstration of .the fact, th^t the general public cannot get a smell m the purchase of fruit at the auction rooms; there being a compact be 1 veen the auction- ■ *ers ' and f riiiteleii: wliich secures to the apple monger linmunitv'from outside competition. A Christchurch mail recently visited Laerv and McFarlane's auction rooms to purchase fruit by common bidding hut the liaughtv firm refused to 'sell him anyVhinp:. An astonished person asked Vr.ii Lastly auctioneer. 1 ? what they :l by it, and In^^^^^ I'epZkAa 1 • '■" "I>,

eral public. In other words, the general public is a large orange which the auctioneers and banana sellers squeeze dry . at their leisure. The baffled 'bidder remarked, "This is a ■public auction room,' " and he Dointed to a legend on the wall to that effect, but the manager replied that it was nothing of the sort, and next time the ■indignant resident vu sited the auction room he found .that the word "public" had been CAREFULLY BUT FIRMLY PAINTED OUT. Now, the failed prospective purchaser is also a fruit grower', and he mentioned the fact, with emohasis. to the manager. It is true that a trust such as is ■ on the eve of. development will pocket its profit ■by bleedinsr outsiders at both ends— the growers firstly, and, secondly, the. don't-cafe-a-damn. d'under-heacled oublic. Still, it" would be an impolitic bloomer to commit an open rupture with :a grower who had adoDted' the singular course of also becomingt . a buyer, arid probably this accounted for the> manager's exasperated order to his. fruit-dumping minions, when he said, shortly,. "Give him what he wants!" The grower-buyer then , bought a few cases. This frank and fearless publication desires to bestow an unsanctified curse 'upon a growing monopoly: which has the unspeakable nerve .to har the public from the "public" auction rooms. One of the nrost potent reasons, if not the prin-r cipal reason, why auctioneers -are licensed is to minimise, if not wholly prevent, suoh hanky-panky, hole and comer business as the exclusion of the public from the "public" auction sales, and it is up to the municipal council, which is; the public's representative and protector m local affairs, to refuse a license to firms that have the astounding- cheek to make, a law unto themselves m. ihe matter of fruit selling. Chow extinction m . Christchurch should not necr essarilyj mean exploitation . of the populace by a Caucasian combine.