APPLE AND PEAR BOARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24783, 6 December 1941, Page 10

APPLE AND PEAR BOARD

•COMMONWEALTH INQUIRY POLICE RAID ON AGENtS (Air Mail) SYDNEY, Dec. 3. After an unhappy three years the New South Wales Apple and Pear Board is to receive a vigorous overhaul. While the Crown Law Department investigates the board's affairs, its administration will be taken oveV by the Federal Department of Commerce. '■■'.'■

Federal authorities took action last Friday when police seized books and documents from the offices of a number of Sydney fruit agents, some of whom were members of- the board. They also raided the office and flat of the board's superintendent, Mr H. A. Stevenson, who had been given indefinite leave of absence. Investigations are likely to proceed for a month before the Crown Law Office will be able to decide what legal action, if any is to be taken. The Board's Powers

The board was created by the Federal. Government in November, 1938, to replace the Voluntary Apple and Pear Council. The board was given power to control the marketing, distribution, and other phases of the industry. Assistance to the industry from 1933-34 to that period had> cost the Government nearly £500,000. Tne then Minister for Commerce, Mr A. G. Cameron, who sponsored the Bill, declared that the board had been demanded by the growers and general public. Growers and general public have since proved the bitterest opponents of the board. Growers declare that the. pooling of crops results in poor returns and unworkable margins. The public hears stories of apples and pears rotting in orchards, and being dumped in thousands from the cold stores. Yet shop prices keep up. Present day shop prices are apples 3d-4d, pears 2d-3d each. Because of the war's interference with overseas markets, the Commonwealth Government took over the whole of the 1939-40 apple and pear crop under an "Aquisition Scheme."'" The Apple • and Pear Board was asked to arrange its distribution through controlling committees in each State. The plan was repeated this season. The method of handling the " pooled " apples and pears later led to allegations of racketeering, waste of good fruit, and general bungling. One report asserted that the board would have to destroy more than half a million cases of fruit because there was no market for it. In March of this year the Federal Government decided to probe the board's activities. A joint Parliamentary Committee decided in favour of retaining the acquisition scheme for the duration of the war.