SPIRITED RETORT BY THE MAYOR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18418, 21 March 1928, Page 9

SPIRITED RETORT BY THE MAYOR.

CHALLENGES FISH MERCHANTS TO PUBLISH WHOLESALE PRICES OF FISH.

A SPIRITED RETORT was made by the Mayor, the Rev J. K. Archer, this morning to criticism offered by Messrs P. Ferpn and Son, Ltd., regarding his comments on the position of the fish trade in Christchurch. The Mayor challenges Messrs Fcron and Son to publish the wholesale prices of fish at their market.

“Messrs Feron and Son are making a great mistake in jumping into the fish controversy, nor are they helping themselves in trjring to associate their case with that of the retail fiah dealers in the city,” said the Mayor. “Scarcely any of the complaints that have come to me have been against the retailers. Virtually all the complaints have had to do with the way in which the fish is handled by the wholesaler?. These complaints come, not as Messrs Feron and Son seem to wish the Christchurch public to believe, chiefly from the fishermen supplying Wellington. On the contrary, they have almost wholly come from fishermen supplying Christchurch, and they come from every fishing area connected with the Christchurch market, whether north, south, east or west. “At least two deputations of fishermen have travelled hundreds of miles

from the far south to interview me on this matter. They emphatically declare that the wholesalers and certain financiers at the back of them have got a stranglehold on the "whole fish trade of this city. “If that is true, it is a very undesirable state of affairs, because it is not in the interests of the fishermen, the retail suppliers of fish or the consumers of fish that any family or firm should be able to control the wholesale market. If such control exists, I’m ready to assist in bringing it to an end. “If Messrs Feron and Son wish to continue this controversy, I have plenty of evidence which can be placed before the public. In the meanwhile, they might answer one simple question which has been put to me by groups of fishermen, namely, why they never 1 report to the public or even to the fishermen the wholesale prices of fish.”