The Daily News THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1933. THE FRUIT EMBARGO.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1933, Page 4

The Daily News

THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1933. THE FRUIT EMBARGO.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH, Currie Street. STRATFORD, Broadway. HAWERA, High Street.

The protest by those engaged in the fruit trade in New Plymouth against the embargo upon citrus fruits from Australia raised a question upon which a clear and definite statement by the Government would be very welcome. The circumstances surrounding the imposition of the embargo have never been clearly understood. With the general public the conviction remains that it was meant as a retaliation against the Australian embargo upon New Zealand potatoes. The Minister responsible for the embargo (Mr. Downie Stewart) denied that the first embargo was retaliatory, but gave no very definite reasons for its imposition. The Commonwealth officials claim that the embargo on New Zealand potatoes was due to fear of the introduction of plant disease, but their statements, like Mr. Stewart’s denial, have been treated with some scepticism by the public in New Zealand and Australia. Whether there is danger to the plant life of either the Dominion or the Commonwealth in the interchange of potatoes and fruit would seem a matter for experts to decide. Instead of that course being adopted the disputes have been handled by Ministers and questions of policy have undoubtedly had an influence in Cabinet decisions. Three classes of society in the Dominion are intimately concerned with the effects of the fruit embargo. They are the fruitgrowers, the fruit sellers, and-, the general public. The growers of citrus fruits in New Zealand and the Dominion’s island dependencies maintain that if they can be assured of the home market they will soon be in a position to fulfil all its requirements. They ask whether a temporary shortage is not worth enduring if a stable industry can be thereby established. The fruitgrowers point to the wheat subsidy as an instance of the whole community being forced to support one branch of husbandry/ and ask with some pertinence why they should not receive treatment similar to that of the growers of wheat. The fruit sellers naturally desire to see the consumption of fruit increase. This can only be brought about if supplies are ample and the price is reasonable, conditions which the prohibition of Australian fruit has made impossible, at any rate in the meantime. They also assert that the risk of disease from Australia is less than from cargoes of fruit from the South Sea Islands, but that, again, is a matter for experts rather than for traders to settle. There remains the position of the consumer to consider. Citrus fruits are an important item in the national diet. Often they are necessary for medicinal purposes, and it is regrettable that at a time when the purchasing power of the community is lower than it has been for many years citrus fruits should be scarce, expensive, and, if some traders are to be believed, of poorer quality than can be obtained from Australia. That is a condition of affairs which demands the attention of the Government. If the embargo was to make bargaining easier with Australia over a new trade agreement it seems to have utterly failed. On the contrary, Australian Ministers are advising fruitgrowers there to accommodate themselves to the loss of the New Zealand market. There are rumours that negotiations in regard to trading with the United States are interwoven with the embargo on Australian fruit, and that trade with America may even open the way to absorption of other New Zealand exports for which there is a likelihood of limitation in the markets of Great Britain within a year or two. If such negotiations are in hand and the public were made aware of the fact there would be more patience with the scarcity of fruit. The community recognises that New Zealand must look ahead, and that the development of new markets is one of the duties to which the State officially and individually . must address itself seriously. But in the absence of any information the public is aware only that it must pay high prices for what ought to be a much larger , item of national diet than it has ever been. If all the circumstances surrounding the imposition of the embargo were known, or whither it is hoped negotiations regarding fresh channels of trade will lead, the community would be less irritated than it is with what appears remarkably like political ineptitude.