THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS DELEGATES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17427, 23 September 1918, Page 6

THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS DELEGATES.

ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND. ENTEIIT AIX ED BY THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION.,. The six journalists selected on behalf of the press of New Zealand to represent it in the _miss:on to England organised by the Ministry of Information reached London oh I July 26, after crossnng the Atlantic from ! New York. They were met at Liverpool I by representatives of the Ministry of Irij formation and oflicials from the High Comi missioner's Office, and convoyed by motor to the train leaving for London the same j afternoon. I On the trip down the party had the | pleasure of seeing General Richardson come | on to the train at one of the stopping ' i places. lie came into one of the reserved i ! carriages which were occr.picd by the New i ! Zeaianders. and added very largely to the i | pleasure and interest which the whole ! | of tho party experienced in travel's- j : sng the highly cultivated and beautiful j ! country through which they passed. Lon- | don was reached about 10 p.m., and the j delegates were couveycd in motors to the j Waldorf Hotel, where accommodation had ; been provided, and where the visitors had i their first experience of the food restrictions j which people have to put up with. It I is, for example, not possible to troti sugar at any meal, and bread is strictly j confined to one small roll made of whole- | ineal flour for each person. Butter is nro- | video in very small pieces—or.e small por- • tion little bigger than a five-shilling piece, and no thicker. People accept the position quite good humourcdlv, as, of course, they ought to do. Spirits are not supplied at meals, and if anyone chooses to purchase j a bottle of whisky outside, he lias to nay 20 shillings for it. ; On the day after their arrival the delej gates were invited to luncheon by Lord Beaverbrook. where they met General i Sims, Elliott. Major Evelyn j Wrench, and other well-known men en- ! gaged in war work of some kind. I It '.vas anticipated by the guests that the | luncheon would be an informal and purely social welcome from the Minister at the I head of the special war matters which come | under his control, but after the pleasant allround talk which took place during the luncheon, Lord Beaverbrook at its close expressed his great pleasure at welcoming the members of the press of New Zealand who had been chosen to visit England in response to his invitation. Ho congratulated. the dominion on the splendid wav m: which it had responded to the call made | on. it by its Government for help in the j war, and in an able and eloquent speech j told the tale of England's own great work | in converting tho peaceful factories and engineering shops throughout the land into ! huge hives of industry for the manufacture i of munitions of war of all kinds. The j extraordinary transformation of peaceful England into a land throbbing -with energy from end to end in the construction of engines of destruction would, he said, be shown to the press delegates in all its de- ! tails, and they would then be taken to sec | tlie Grand Fleet of the Empire in its i massive strength and enabled to realise that j in the final resort in the great clash of arms that is rending the nations of the earth. if it came to such a final resort, victory would be assured. • Speaking in eloquent terms of the reasons -which had i induced the Imperial Government to ask pressmen of the overseas parts of the Empire to Visit England, Lord Beaverbrook said that the Government, recognising the magnificent work which those parts of the Empire had performed, considered it their plain and manifest duty to place before the dominions and dependencies of tho Empire an opportunity of judging through the representatives they sent what an enormous task Britain had before it when the war commenced, and how well she had fulfilled that task. Further, the delegates would bo taken into the confidence of tho Government with, respcct to many .important matters it had to consider, both in relation to present-day issues and to the no less important questions that would engage their anxious consideration when the war was over. In so taking the flelegates into their confidence, he 'wished them clearly to understand that they would bo left to form their own unbiassed " opinions of whatever was placed before them, and to place before the people of New Zea.la.ncl the conclusions they had arrived at. While it might not be permissible fcr them to publish all that they would be told, or indicate all thatthey would bo shown, they would be helped to come to a sound and intelligent judgment on important matters -which, witli otherwise imperfect knowledge, were apt to bo misunderstood. The delegates would also be taken to France and to the battlefront, and there they would' realise not only what England had done in.the service she had rendered to her great ally Franco in their joint effort to repel trie invasion of a ruthless foe, but also what the frightful sufferings of that courageous ally had been, what devastation of her fertile lands and destruction of her happy villages and towns and cities had taken place, and what appalling sufferings had been endured by her unfortunate people. In responding to the cordial welcome that had been extended to them by Lord Beaverbrook, the chairman of the delegates (Mr G. Fenwick) said he felt it to bi?"quite impossible to reply adequately to the powerful speech to which they had listened from their host. He_ had in forcible and lucid terms dealt with England's magnificent work in raising the splendid army that

had shed lustro on the nation, • and in transforming England's unpreparedness „ A ; war to her present wonderful condition of industrial energy— a condition which enabled her to turn out all the munitions she required for her own army, tut materially to help all her allies in ttu-3 respect It. was a truly wonderful record, and would fr.r all time be regarded < as practically achieving the impossible. Mr I'enwiek spoke of tho determination of the people of New Z.ealand-to support the Empire m its great task until such a peace is secured as shall for all time make Germany realise that she has utterly miscalculated the strength of tho nations arrayed against her, and that never again will she permitted to menace the peace of the worid. He expressed his appreciation of the imperial Government's action in talcing the newspapers of the overseas dominions iiito their confidence with the object of enabling them to form a clear, and sound jnegment on the vital questions the Government had to determine, and said tho delegates would go hack to New Zealand ■Kith a widened knowledge of those issues arid ,a, profound satisfaction that New Zealand s assistance in the war had been such if to earn the appreciation and thanks of Britain VenimCnt and the people of Great

THE FRUIT QUESTION. TO THE EDITOR. Sis,— It is rather amusing to notice the c»iort of the .ruit retailers to concentrate public attention solely upon the subject of tiie justice or otnerwise of the proposal of the fruit producers to charge for eases. • W ell, let us examine this question from every point of view, since, as'you state for t-neiii, this is their strongest point. | l'he first and busio fact is that the case i j? an inu;spens:ble factor in the production ,of fruit. Secondly, its pricc must be ! <, "''; r S f -d to the cost of production. Thirdly, it is supplied and paid for by the producer. Fourthly, the ease deteriorates with each trip into the market, 1 at least to the extent of She ccsiruction of tho lids, which have to be replaced at a cost which cannot be much, if anything, less than 2d. Finally, it must be wholly replaced by tho grower sooner or later, and it is a fair assumption that it will stand no more than six tripe backwards and forwards. Therefore, the average, cost of the case being Is, and the j lid having to be renewed every trip, the j position R of the growers is that by charging i od and paying 4d on returns, he cannot | possibly recoup his initial outlay if the case I lasted iorevcr; he merely recovers the cost ; of the damage done to his property by the j retailer. But s:pee the case cannot survive ! more than six trips, the grower must again ; incur the expense of complete renewal, j It is clear then that the proposal of the ; grower to collect 2d per case from the re- ; tailors, will not permit of him charging the ! cost of cases to the cost of production, as he iis perfectly entitled to do." It would be 1 interesting if the representative retailers j would explain in detail how the grower j would quickly recoup himself at 2d each j time, with the possibility even of getting in more money than he paid for the cases." i What is the position the outraged re- : tailor desires to maintain? First, he insists ; upon having the case corfie into his possesj sion free. Secondly, he desires to sell • back the case and charge to the owner 4d | every trip. This would bo absolutely clear profit, to him on an indispensible commoditv |in fruit production. Thirdly, he desires to j evade paying for the damage he does. The j foregoing is the relative position of the' j contending parties, stripped of all verbiage, ; and a discerning public will see where j justice lies. j Let us examine the fruit bag complaint ! of tho retailer. First, Ijlb bags cost 13s | per 1000. and weigh 131b. Secondly, reI tailors sell by gross weight, and weigh the bag with the fruit. Therefore, with fruit S at 6d per lb, the consumer recoups, the j retailer 50 per cent, of the cost of the i bags. The normal price of bags is approjri- | mately 3s 6d per 1000, and, as the bags are j weighed in with the fruit, it clear that j normally retailers have been making ap- ' proximately 90 per cent, profit on their | bags. In face of these facts, it would be i interesting to have your representative re- | tailors explain how they give bags " free I to customers."

But suppose, for the sake of clearness, that the retailers have a just grievance in the case question, there are some questions the public are asking which can only be answered by retailers. First, since no charge to retailers has yet been made for eases, why has the retailer penalised the community by boycotting the bulk of the fruit in the market during tho past three weeks? Secondly, why ha*he deliberately set out to destroy the fruit which flowed into this market during that time, thus artificially producing a scarcity which must reflect itself in higher prices to the community? I hope the Retailers' Association, as such, will address itself to these questions. Its reply will be awaited with some interest by the community.—l am, etc., 50 Hanover street. J. D. Smith. -

. Sib,—ln your issue of the 14th inst. I noticcd a letter signed "Apples." "Apples" was quite right in signing the pluVal as there are two. persons who have Tncted in a very traitorous manner to the Fruit-growers Co-operative Association, and I was_ pleased to note the emphatic way in which the Ettrick fruit-growers resolved to support the association in its endeavour to market their fruit and to back it financially.—l am, etc., Frttit-ghoweb.