SALE OF FRUIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25090, 4 December 1942, Page 2

SALE OF FRUIT

OBLIGATIONS OF RETAILERS AN OPPOSITION PROTEST (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 3. As a protest against the clause in the Apple and Pear Marketing Regulations which places on the retailer the onus of proof when prosecuted under the regulations, the Opposition called for a division in the House of Representatives this morning on the second reading of the Agricultural Emergency Regulations Confirmation Bill. The measure was passed by 39 votes to 24. The Minister of Marketing. Mr J. G. Barclay, said the regulations being validated under the Bill were to check “ black marketing," which had been prevalent in the marketing of fruit in other countries. Very severe penalties were imposed for these practices, and the New Zealand regulations were not as harsh as those in Britain, where offenders were sent to gaol. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, urged that the producers should be permitted to sell five cases of fruit to a consumer instead of two, as stipulated in the regulations. “The fruit seller is put in the same class as the sly grog-seller by this clause, which puts on him the onus of proof," he continued. “Unless the Minister withdraws the clause I will oppose the Bill.”

The Minister said the department had tried unsuccessfully to obtain convictions against retailers infringing the regulations. “No honest trader will object to the regulations, and will readily produce proof that he has bought his fruit through the approved channels,” he added. “In the past some retailers have defied the department to prove how they obtained their fruit. It will be a simple matter for the retailer to show that he is not in the black market.”