COOK ISLANDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20680, 19 March 1937, Page 10

COOK ISLANDS

FRUIT CONTROL REGULATIONS By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, March 18. The Cook Islands fruit control regulations, issued to-night, empower the Minister for the Cook Islands to assume from time to time control of the whole or any portion of the fruit produced in the Cook Islands and intended for export. The Minister may delegate his powers to the secretary for the islands or to the resident commissioner. No person may, unless the Minister is a party or with his consent, enter into any contract for the export or carriage or sale of fruit from the islands. An advisory committee is established to advise the resident commissioner regarding the carrying out of the regulations. The membership of the committee is set out in the regulations. The Minister may from time to time allocate the maximum quantities of different species of fruit that any planter, district or island shall be permitted to supply for export in any particular shipment or season. He may also fix the minimum price of fruit, and ways in which he can assist growers are provided. Provision for the application of the moneys received by the Minister is set out in several clauses, and the Minister is empowered to make a levy not exceeding 1/- a case for citrus fruit and bananas, and 6d a box for tomatoes for the purposes of the regulations, and he may withhold from distribution moneys received in order to establish a reserve fund, but this must not exceed 2d a case or box of fruit. Penalties are provided for breaches of the regulations.