“FOOLED AGAIN’’

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 275, 20 November 1943, Page 4

“FOOLED AGAIN’’

FRUIT INDUSTRY’S REPLY TO MR. NASH (P.A.) Wellington, Nov. 19. “The fruit industry has been fooled again,” says the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation in a reply to-day to Mr. Nash’s statement, of last evening. “Mr Nash’s promise to set up another committee of inquiry into the pip fruit industry is ludicrous,” the federation says. “Since the present Government came into power the following Commissions of Inquiry have already sat and reported to the Government:—l936, Coleman Commission; 1937, Departmental Commission; 1939, Picot Commission; 1943, Stabilisation Commission.” “In addition the Government’s own body, the National Fruit Advisory Board, has recently reported on the alarming decline in production throughout New Zealand. Another ‘survey’ of the industry will only cover the ground already fully explored, and to judge by yesterday’s interview with the Ministers they will not take notice of the report anyway. “The directors of the federation were definitely led to believe that the Stabilisation Commission was to inquire into the whole cost of production. and at the request of the Stabilisation Commission the federation prepared and presented its evidence accordingly. Now the commission reports on the increased costs only, a matter which has never been in dispute.

“When the fruit was originally purchased by the Government on the outbreak of the war, the price offered was at least lOd per case below the cost of production, but was accepted as a temporary expedient, as explained to Mr. Nash repeatedly. To continue to build the price on that temporary foundation is futile.

“The industry has been fooled again, and there is a feeling that even the Ministers themselves may have been misled by their own officers.”