THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1624, 29 April 1919, Page 3

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

SUGGESTIONS FROM HAWKE'S BAY. Triu .1 I •■■■■id'.: rt. HASTINGS, April 28. Before the Parliamentary Industries Committee to-day, Mr H. G. Apsey advocated the increase of Government loans to cool storage companies from £9OOO to £15,000, owing to the enormous increase in orchard acreage, and the consequent increased fruit production needing cool storage. Mr Thomas Morton, representing the nursery industry, said the nurserymen in Hawke's Bay paid wages totalling £12,000 per year*. The nurserymen were handicapped by the Government offer ing shelter and fruit trees at a price that ifoold not pay for production. State-grown trees shonld not be supplied to wealthy settlers for beautifying their homesteads. Referring to imported trees, he said the Fruitgrowers' Federation bad asked the nurserymen not to increase the price of trees if prohibition of the Australian trees were carried into effect, and the nurserymen hail agreed, usually, not to increase the price for five years. The difficulty was that the cost of protection had gone up and they could not raise the price. The chairman said that the Commis*en eould not help the nurserymen in the matter of their agreement with another body, even if they had made a bad bargain. Mr A. M. Robertson, president of the Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers' Association, said the public were not getting the benefit of the industry. If fruit was sent into every home, New Zealanders would become a fruit-eating community. Fruit should be made rheap to the people. They had now storage for 70,000 cases, but the overbead charges and the cost of handling after leaving the orchards increased Ike cost 100 per cent. He advocated Ike New Zealand paper mills being encouraged to make corrugated pasteboard boxes. The demand for boxes was great. No fewer than ."JOO.OOO rases were sent ont of Hawke's Bay last season. The Fruitgrowers' Federation was concerned in cheapening fruit. They were organising and linking up the companies throughout New Zealand with that object. The public in the cities were not getting fruit at proper prices. The federation desired to bave a depot at Wellington and •titer centres, and they hoped to have their own delivery soon, bringing fruit to their depots, thus saving auctioneers' charges to the benefit of growers and eoc-miners.