THE PRICE OF FRUIT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19700, 29 January 1926, Page 11

THE PRICE OF FRUIT.

TO THE EDITOR. ' Sib, —The beautiful legend, “Eat more Fruit,” has ■ been, impressed upon all and sundry pretty often. In this morning’s Daily Times we read of thousands of oranges being left to rot, simply because there was a glut, and because it was not worth while to sell oranges at less than four, or live for the shilling. Personally my attitude is this: I do not think it worth while giving a shilling for three oranges. It reminds me too painfully of the influenza scourge of 1918 when lemons were badly wanted for the sick, and none could be got because greedy middlemen were asking extortionate prifcrs, and lemons disappeared from the market. 1 would willingly give a shilling for, say, a dozen oranges and that would probably leave a margin of profit from Australian oranges. As it is, I cannot do so, and therefore, instead of spending 12s on 12dozen oranges, I spend nothing. We are told that something of the same sort occurs in the fish trade, while the consumer pays lOd or Is for a pound of kingfish and soles are equally costly. It is such facts as these which lend colour to the arguments of the Bolshevist. The Government docs, I know, profess to deal with these problems, but the general distribution of essential foodstuffs should, if the middleman cannot restrain his greed, be placed beyond bis reach. We are all to some extent Communists to-day, and it is the voiceless public which overturns Governments. The public is silent, it is long-suffering like its forbears at Home, but if it finds that those who govern are indifferent to everyday needs, sooner or later it will turn to other helpers.—l am, etc., D. L. January 27. [The president of the Fruit Brokers’ Association has denied that the rejection of the shipment of Australian oranges was due to a glut on the market. He has said that it was due to the faulty condition in which the fruit arrived. —Ed. O.D.T.]