FRUIT FOR THE PEOPLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 5, 31 December 1912, Page 4

FRUIT FOR THE PEOPLE.

To read in the metropolitan journals that fruit supplies have been cleared only at much decreased prices will come as a surprise to dwellers in the

country—Stratford not excepted. This experience was t'he result, we are told, of recent changes in the timetable of the steamer from the Islands. These reports come from Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin, from 1 the importers, of course. Regarding Dunedin, it is stated that the venture of obtaining an extra supply of Island fruit for the Christmas trade has proved disastrous to the brokers. An

extra consignment of bananas, instead of bringing 14s to 15s a case, only realised haif_ that amount, and the estimated loss to the brokers urns about £6OO. No doubt the brokers in the other centres also had a bad run, if the fruit market was glutted, as it is stated was the case. But they “make good” in the intervening spaces between holidays (a time when the public clamour for fruit more particularly) and that they take advantage of every opportunity need not be doubted for a moment. What parti-

cularly concerns us here and now (and always for that matter) is the price that has to be paid for the little bit of fruit that reaches the homes of tne people. Taking last week, for example, the few bags that the average man could afford to buy for the family were very small, .and it is safe to say that throughout the whole year the bananas, oranges, lemons, and other fruits that cannot be grown in home or. chards are a positive luxury. It was , time the Government turned its atten..

tion to the fruit-growing lands of the Dominion and encouraged settlement in the industry. In a country like ours, fruit should be cheap—with a reasonable profit to the grower and the retailer, of course—but what do we find? Why, of bananas one received nine for a shilling, oranges are 2d each, lemons are also six for the nimble shilling, cherries and the smaller fruits as much as Is 6d a pound. The explanation given for these retail market prices by the local vendors is that an inland town cannot be compared to a seaport, in the matter of prices for fruit. A European fruiterer stated to our representative that prices would, df course, decrease in the case of many fruits as the season advanced. As to which was the cheaper market—Auckland or Wellington—he was not prepared to give a definite statement. He mentioned that foreign fruit cost more than double the New Zealand grown article in freight, and was inclined to think that for trie latter Auckland was the cheaper market. He bought, mostly, direct from thb orchards, and, so far as the Island fruit was concerned, stated that the Chinese ring did not affect him appreciably. All this amounts to very little, and is beside the point at issue—viz., the reason for the high prices of, sub-tropical fruits, "fi is interesting to read that in four days 13,000 cases of bananas were landed on the Auckland wharves, not to mention 3,500 cases of Canadian apples, and 1500 cases of Washington navel oranges, and yet the most that the Queen City can absorb in a month is 6000 cases, according to expert opinion. Then how is it that so little finds its way to the country ? There is little use crying about the glut when markets are dotted where every town md village stand. Within twenty-four hours, enough fruit of that shipment could have been landed in Stratford 1 to have satisfied the public for the holidays and created an appetite for the future that would double, aye, treble the tuni'-over of every fruiterer in the district. Whangamomona and the wayside stations would get their little lot a few hours later. It should be remembered that every case of stuff that goes through our goods shed makes for the betterment and progress of Stratford, and from this aspect only it is a matter that the Chamber of Commerce could well spend some of the time of their meetings in discussing.