A VEGETABLE “RING”.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1922, Page 5

A VEGETABLE “RING”.

OPERATIONS BY CHINESE. RETURNED SOLDIERS’ SCHEME. A suggestion that the Government should assist returned soldiers to undertake the marketing of the vegetables and fruit produced by white market gardeners in the Hutt Valley was placed before the Prime Minister and the Minister in charge of Repatriation in. Wellington last week. Sympathetic consideration of the scheme was prom*, ised. Mr. W. J. Pascoe said the white market gardeners in the Hutt Valley were willing to enter into an arrangement with some of the partially disabled men for the distribution of vegetables and fruit. The 'gardeners found that when they sent their products to the auction market, the Chinese had almost a monopoly of the buying, and the practice was for one Chinese to buy for all tJse others, thus preventing competition and< keeping down the prices. If the Government assisted through the Repatriation Department to provide the returned men with a store and delivery carts, a profitable and useful business might bo developed. The Hon. D. 11. Guthrie said he thought the suggestion was well worth, consideration. It was a fact that the growers brought their vegetabes to Wellington and sold them under very disadvantageous conditions at auction. It appeared that a ring had been formed, and one Chinese bought for all the Chinese shops. Members of the Returned Soldier*’ Association remarked that it waa strange how many people oeemed to prefer to buy their vegetables from the Chinese. White gardeners produced, the vegetables in the Hutt Valley and elsewhere and sent them into the city; 1 then the ring got to work, and the produce sold for next to nothing in the auction rooms, while the consumer* continued to pay high prices. The market gardeners were quite willing to confer with a co-operative group of returned soldiers. This group could consist of men whose war injuries had unfitted them for heavy work. If the Government lent them enough money to provide a central store and some carte and horses, a delivery system could be arranged. Mr. Guthrie thought the suggestion an excellent one, and agreed to give what support he coukl to a definite scheme.