BAN ON ISLAND TOMATOES REFUSED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18393, 20 February 1928, Page 6

BAN ON ISLAND TOMATOES REFUSED.

DEPUTATION MAY WAIT ON CANTERBURY M.P.’S. The Christchurch Tomato and Stone Fruit Growers’ Association met on Saturday evening, Mr C. E. Pope presid in g. It was decided to vote £2 2s towards the fund raised recently as a recognition by the growers of the Dominion of the work of Dr R. J. Tillyard, late director of the Cawthron Institute, who has accepted an important office in Australia.

The Railway Department notified that during the Easter holidays the usual 10.45 p.m. Middleton-Invercargill train would run on Thursday, April 5, to Dunedin only, and would not run again until it left Middleton on the evening of April 10 for Invercargill. The usual 11.35 a.m. Invercargill-Middleton goods train would run on April 5 to Dunedin only, and not again till April 10, when it would run from Invercargill to Middleton. It was decided that the association support the fruiterers in their demand that no restriction should be made on the hours of the sale by fruiterers of flowers, and that Mr J. M’Combs, M.P., he asked to interview the Minister on the subject. It was decided to inform the Retailers’ Association, and the auctioneers that the Tomato Growers’ Association was prepared to take part in a combined meeting once every three months. It was suggested that the first meeting should take place next month. It was also decided to inform the Retailers’ Association that a combined picnic would be agreed to. The Auckland Provincial Fruitgrowers’ Council forwarded a copy of a letter received from Sir Maui Pomare, Minister in charge of Cook Islands, in which he declined to entertain’ a request that the importation of Cook Island tomatoes should be stopped in the months of November and December. The Minister pointed out that the Cook Islands were an integral part of New Zealand, and it would be as reasonable to suggest that fruit should not be sent from the North Island to the South Island. The chairman said that the association should be dealing with the Hon A. D. M’Leod, as Minister of Industries and Commerce, and not with Sir Maui Pomare, and he expressed the view that Sir Maui was playing with them. One member expressed the opinion that tomatoes were being dumped in New Zealand during the glut season of the hot-house tomatoes. The chairman said it was the Auckland brokers who brought the tomatoes here. Mr D. Park said there was no chance at present of keeping out Rarotongan tomatoes. What the association should go for was a display card in the shop windows, showing the place of origin of the tomatoes. Mr C. J. Fineran said the island competition was not fair competition. The tomatoes were grown in the islands under entirely different conditions from those that obtained in New Zealand. Growers went to the expense here of erecting expensive glass-houses, and it was not fair that they should be met with this competition. The chairman said that the wages paid in Rarotonga were only three or four shillings a day. The question of the standard of living was therefore raised. Mr H. Falla said it had been stated that the tomatoes did not pay the island growers. Apparently the brokers got the profits. It was decided to get into touch with the Canterbury Members of Parliament Association to ascertain if it would receive a deputation from the association regarding tomatoes and other matters. It was reported that there was unlikely to be a glut of tomatoes this year; indeed if the weather continued dry there might be something in the nature of a famine. It was possible that timely rain within the next week or two would create a glut. At present there were no really good crops. There were some fair crops and some very poor crops.