HIGH PRICES FOR COMMODITIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13874, 11 April 1907, Page 2

HIGH PRICES FOR COMMODITIES.

Sir,—ln your issue of the stli insh. Mr Trod. E. Nottago says it would l:o unfair lo open our markets to unfair competition of grapes when there arc thousands of acres of land in Control Otago suitable for growing grapes. Ho lias no hesitation in saying the district between Alexandra and Cromwell could, in the future, supply the whole of New Zealand at a price much below 6;l per lb. As a Dunedin resident. I fake exception to part of hie letter. The. price of grapes for years past in Dunedin in tho shops lias ranged from Is 6d to 2s 6(1 per lb. Who but the rich could afford these price,?? Since the Adelaide Commission to the Exhibition offered to send lons of grapes to New Zealand to be sold to tho consumer at 6d per lb, and sines ho imported somo two tons lor Exhibition purposes, what a change! For these last few months the price of grapes in the Dunedin shops has been Is per lb and sometimes less, evidently owing to the importation and the fear of .possible future importation. Is there not. a saying. "Competition is the life of trado"! Is it not bettor for all of us when there is wholesome competition in all branches of trade? Of course, competition can bo overdone. But so can Protection—to t.ho detriment of the many, while the few only aro benefited. Mr Scott, the commissioner, said he would guarantee splendid grapes sold to the consumer in Dunodin at 6:1 per lb. Should the eliops not bo satisfied with 3d per lb profit he would take moans that the consumer should have tho grapes at 6d por ib. Would the growers of grapes in Central Otago give

such a guarantee? I trow not. Now tako tho price of rabbits at the present timo in the Dimedin shops—lod and Is per pair without the shins. The skins are worth 4d to 6d per pair, making (ho total price Is 2d to U 5d the shops get for a. pair of rabbits landed in Duneilin, say. from Central Ota-go for 6(1 per for the trapper, l|d carriage_ to Dunedin— which means a profit of lOtl and sometimes more on a pair of rabbit,?. I am under tho impression when the Dunedin press is informing its readers of the trusts in America, or elsewhere it should look nearer home. As a rule arc not tho prices of fruit, fish, nn<l rabbits in Dunedin ioo high lo enable the ordinary, labouring man and his family to buy? Surely hero is an opening for thosi? who have the energy to benefit tho working classes ami their families, whether it bo some of Iho clergy. Labour loaders, Salvation Army, and not forgetting tho prohibitionists. Here is a. field in which they will do some good.—l am, etc., Dunedin, April 8. J. R, K.