PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING

Taranaki Daily News, 27 January 1933, Page 12

PLEA FOR UNDERSTANDING

EMBARGO ON FRUIT IMPORTS. AUSTRALIAN GIVES ADVICE. A plea for the early lifting of the embargoes which had been placed on the fruit trade between Australia and New Zealand before the matter was aggravated and relations between the two countries strained, was made by Mr. E. P. N. Sheedy, who arrived at from Sydney on Monday, states the Auckland Star. Mr. Sheedy is the chairman of the United Press Association, chairman of directors of the Newcastle ISoming Herald, and is also interested in orange-growing in Australia. “In regard to the retaliatory action evidenced in the present fruit embargo, I cannot say that Australia had altogether played its part/ and I fedl that there may be very just reason for New Zealand to feel aggrieved, but at the same time I think there should be a reasonable solution of a mutual difficulty,” said Mr. Sheedy. “I understand New Zealand has placed the embargo on Australian oranges because Australia will not admit New Zealand apples. FIREBLIGHT FEAR. Mr. Sheedy added that there had been a highly scientific controversy in relation to the anxiety iri regard to fireblight in the New Zealand apple orchards, and for that reason the Australian Agricultural Department had. stood out definitely against any suggestion to lift the embargo on apples. So far as he understood fireblight, Mr. Sheedy. said that he believed that it had existed in Californian and English orchards for over 50 years. It seemed to him that undue emphasis was laid on it, for, after all, it was a sap disease that could be controlled. On the other hand, the New Zealand authorities claimed that, there was every possibility of trouble in the importation of Australian oranges because of the danger of the fruit fly being introduced. He found it hard to follow this argument in face of the fact that approximately half the amount of oranges imported, from Australia to the Dominion was imported from the Cook Islands, which were known not to be free of citrus troubles. Australia prided itself on its wonderfully fine system of control. . ■ ’ ' ' . ' : NOT THE OTTAWA SPIRIT. “I am speaking purely from the standpoint of the grower and from personal contact with the merchandising and distributing end of the trade, and I am quite prepared to admit that the Australian grower is just as narrow in his outlook as the New Zealand grower. When it is all said and done, these embargoes do not support the Ottawa spirit. The world is changing, and we have to change with it to make for Empire consolidation with which we will not get very far without broadness of vision in such matters as these.” Mr. Sheedy said the big difficulty in the way of mutually settling the fruit embargo difficulty was apparently the scientific controversy, and while, he had great regard for expert opinion he thought it imperative that the more reasonable side of the matter should receive urgent and practical treatment. The relative trade and business of the two countries were suffering, and he suggested that to get down to a practical business viewpoint a conference of the two Government Departments should be called and representative growers and merchants of the two countries mvited to participate. He had great confidence that if such a conference were called before the present conditions were aggravated a practical solution would be found. IN TIME OF NEED.

The f 4't that in 1918, when the Dominion was in the throes of the influenza outbreak, the Government of the Day considered the position so serious that it seized the stock of oranges (and they were mostly from Australia) so that the valuable health fruit should be available for the afflicted, was stressed by Mr. Sheedy. In view of the reports of influenza in other parts of the world to-day, he shuddered to think . what would happen in New Zealand if adequate supplies of citrus fruit could not be obtained at a time of grave neccs“But it appears to me that the matter

of apples and oranges is not the real bone of contention in these embargo measures,” said Mr. Sheedy. “If we get down to bedrock we will find that potatoes are the difficulty. The records of the two countries will show that a glut of potatoes never occurs ou*both sides of the Tasman Sea at the one time, and it is therefore unthinkable that any Government would deprive its consuming public of such an important staple food as potatoes if a shortage happened in either country.”