OLIVES FOR PUBLIC.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 849, 24 August 1933, Page 5

OLIVES FOR PUBLIC.

Concession in Duties Sought. TARIFF COMMISSION EVIDENCE. (Special to the “Star.”) AUCKLAND, August 24. “It would make a big difference. We would pass it on to the public, and whereas people now take home a bottle of olives for special occasions, they would make a habit of eating them.” So stated Mr J. P. Stephenson, managing director of Whittome, Stephenson, Ltd., to the Tariff Commission, when Professor Murphy asked him if the lifting of the duty on olives imported in bulk for repacking in New Zealand would not give the New Zealand manufacturers the market for olives. Distinction in the duty on olives imported in casks of ten gallons or over, against olives imported in bottles, was sought by Mr Stephenson. Both are now subject to a 20 per cent duty. The bulk olives, he said." were repacked for the retail trade. They were not grown in New Zealand. Gherkins, now subject to 20 per cent duty for British and 45 per cent foreign, it. was urged, should also be exempted from duty when imported in casl<s over ten gallons The world’s supply practically all came from Holland, said the wit- " Can they not be grown in New Zealand? ” asked Professor Murphy. “ We have been trying to get people to grow them for the past twenty years, having imported the seed and given it to growers, but tjhey never seem to get the results,” replied Mr Stephenson.