GROCERIES AND THEIR PRICES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18431, 15 March 1922, Page 2

GROCERIES AND THEIR PRICES.

Grocery prices were again the subject of a lengthy discussion, at the Patea Hospital Board yesterday. Recently the Board accepted the tender of a Wanganui firm for the upply of groceries, and since fl tn Patea suppliers have been seeking to retrieve their position. It was decided at last raeetrig to call fresh tenders, and at yesterday’s meeting two tenders were received from Patea firms, but it was stated that no tenders had been invited from Wanganui. Mr Belton asked a question as to this. The chairman said it was understood that local firms only were to be asked to tender. Mr Belton said that this looked as if the Board would not give other firms a chance. The chairman remarked that when groceries were obtained from outside Patea extra expense was entailed through carting the supplies from the railway station. Mr Belton said that although noli present at the previous meeting, he had read the report in the newspapers, and expressed the opinion that there was an undercurrent of opinion on the side of the local suppliers, and they boycotted the outside firms. He emphatically denied that he was in the pay of Mr Kernohan to advocate his claims to supply the Board with groceries. What he (Mr Belton) had done had been purely in the interests of the Board, and he strongly objected to the imputations made. Mr Belton said he had looked through the quotations, and he no’ced articles quoted by the local firms at higher “Trices than outside. He instanced matches, which could be bought from Rp’-nnhaJis at lOd a packet, against 1/ charged by the Patea firms. They could not blame the Board for going outside if it was being done in the interests of the Board. Some of the local members of the Board were prejudiced in this matter. The chairman took exception to this remark. As a public body it was their duty to buy at the cheapest rate, and it was absolutely incorrect to say that he favoured Patea tradespeople. Mr Belton: At. last meeting you asked someone to move to go back to the local tradespeople. Mr Hooper was in favour of calling further tenders by advertisement. Atfter further discussion, during which Mr Belton said they could get goods from Wanganui at least 17 per cent, cheaper than in Patea, it was decided that fresh tenders be called for, and that a committee stipulate the list of firms to be invited to tender. The question of indenting crockery was held over when it was stated that the crockery market was falling.