RELIEVING UNEMPLOYED.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18166, 3 November 1930, Page 3

RELIEVING UNEMPLOYED.

PROPOSED CHAIN OF FISH SHOPS. OPINION IN CHRISTCHURCH. “Everything will depend on the wav it is managed,” a man connected with the fish trade told a Christchurch Sun reporter in commenting on the proposal of the Organised Unemplovcd and Relief Workers’ Association to run a chain of fish shops in the c-ity to raise money for relieving distress. The general opinion of those connected with the trade was that it will be found by the promoters that there is not a handsome profit to be reaped in the -catching and , selling:, of fish, and that there will be little in the venture unless it js economically run. “The enterprise is being launched at the wrong time of the year,” one man who has been connected with the retail flsh trade, for over 20 years told the reporter. He said that during the hot weather supplies were good, but, on the other hand, people did not purchase freely, and prices were generally low. He thought the unemployed would find that there was not a big profit to be made in the business of catching and selling fish. Careful management was wanted, and men who were comparatively inexperienced in the business could nbt make much out of it. “Not All Beer and Skittles.” “It is a free country and everyone is entitled to have a pop at anything they like, but it will be found that the flsh business is not all beer and skittles,” another retailer said. He. thought that there was no reason why the enterprise should not be successful if it were run on the right lines, but there were many difficulties to be overcome, and even when success was achieved the profits that would be returned would not be large. One result of the attempt might be that the workers would find that they could not make as much profit as they anticipated, and then they would have to put up the price of flsh to make the venture worth while. - If there were a chain of shops this might be serious from the point of view of the householder. “It sounds easy simply to take fish from the sea, where it has cost nothing to produce, and sell it to the public with advantage, but there is more than that in it," another fishmonger said. He said that when prices for fish were good the catches were small, and when the catches were good the demand was so low that the fish had to be offered at cutrate prices that left only a very small margin of profit. If the scheme of the Organised Unemployed was to run the business to \nake money for the relief of distress, he did not think it would meet with much success. The margin of profit would be so little that the enterprise would be doing little more than paying its way. Hot a Fortune In It. “If the thing is made a success, and the organisers feel they want to make more out of a good thing, we will be quite prepared to sell out to them at a reasonable price," a member of a wholesale firm said. On the economic principle that competition was the life of trade the new venture might be an advantage, but he did not think that much money would be made out of it by the promoters. The flsh trade offered a good, living to those able to run it well, bul there was nothing like a fortune in it. Everything depended on the way the business was run, and he was doubtful if men who had little or no experience in it could step in and run it more profitably than those who had been in the trade all their lives.