REJECTED BY CANTERBURY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 257, 31 October 1939, Page 8

REJECTED BY CANTERBURY

CONTROL OF PIP FRUIT MINISTER'S PROPOSAL TURNED DOWN | Per Press Association 1 CHRISTCHURCH. Oct. 30. Rejection of a proposal of the Minister for Marketing, the Hon. W. Nash, for the control of pip fruit in the coming season, was unanimously approved by more than 70 Canterbury fruitgrowers in the city to-day. The meeting, which discussed the future of pip-fruit growing and the Government's policy towards it for about two and a-half hours, finally carried unanimously the following resolution: “That this meeting rejects the Minister's proposals and asks that the Government purchase and export from 1,000,000 to 1.500,000 cases of fruit at a price based on a sliding scale, with a minimum price of 7s 6d a case to the grower at assembly point (or its equivalent f.0.b.1. and that the local market, be left free." The meeting had before it the advice of Mr. Nash's proposal that the Government should buy 1.000,000 cases of fruit at 6s Od f.0.b.. with the right to sell in the Dominion any quantity it could not export, and that marketing in New Zealand should be controlled by a hoard on which there would be two representatives of the Fruitgrowers' Federation. The main points of the criticism ot Mr. Nash's plan, which was freely and vigorously expressed, were that the price was too low for Canterbury (which probably would do little exporting', that the grower had to carry the risks of deterioration until the fruit was safely in an overseas vessel. and that, as the Canterbury meeting had previously decided, there was a strong opinion that there should be no State control of the local marketing of apples.