for Women

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 172, 23 July 1942, Page 3

for Women

HIGH PRICES WOMEN'S PROTESTS MEN CRITICISED Strong exception to remarks of the Auckland Fruit and Produce Auctioneers' Association was taken this morning by representatives of the women's organisations interested in the matter. The association expressed criticism of the women's efforts in protesting against the high prices of fruit and vegetables. Miss C. Pilkington, the secretary of the Housewives' Association, which has done valuable research on the matter, said: "We feel that the attitude of the Auctioneers' Association and others is a personal and selfish one. "They are only out for the good of their pockets, not for the good of the people, and it is for the good of the people that women's organisations like ourselves are working. "My reaction was that this Auctioneers' Association and the others with similiar objects have been kept exclusively for men in past years, and women have never been invited to take part in their deliberations. Now when women are getting together to try and remedy matters, the men want to butt in. The men had their opportunity to put their case before the public. Now the women are forming their own judgments on that information. "I consider that if women engage a hall for a meeting, they should be allowed to hold it without men trying to overshadow it. "The Auctioneers' Association is taking the whole matter personally, overlooking the fact that the health of the people is what matters. We women have been left to guard that health." "The meetings of the Public Opinion Group, which was one of those represented at the Town Hall meeting, are open to the public," said the actingpresident of the working committee, Mrs. Hedda Dyson. "That means that members of the auctioneers' association are free to be represented and bring in their votes in the same fashion as women representatives." Mrs. Dyson said that three delegates were appointed from the Town Hall meeting to present the petition ancl resolutions agreed upon and endorsed by thousands of consumers. "Memners of the women's organisations concerned have done a tremendous amount of research, and collected a great deal of evidence on the question," she went on. "We could produce sheafs of evidence proving that vegetables have been dug in, but what we- have no power to prove is, whether this was done at the instigation of the Auctioneers' Association or by individual Chinese. "To take one case out of many— that of pears," said Mrs. Dyson. "There has been virtually no export of pears as compared with the prewar average of 100,000 cases annually. Yet dessert pears, for which growers received lid per lb, are on sale in the shops at prices from 6d to lOd per lb. Women are entitled to ask, 'What does the gap mean?'" Mrs. Dyson added that no blame J was being attached to any particular group in the chain from producer to consumer. "The position regarding vegetables is even more serious than it was a few months ago." said Mr. F. Craig, president of the Trades Council of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. "At that time, the Trades Council set up a committee to inquire into the matter, and the evidence produced was so serious that the council requested the Government to set up a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole matter. "This was not complied with, and after another meeting last week, at which further serious evidence was submitted, the council is making a second request for a Royal Commission. Auctioneers Perturbed Women's organisations which have been concerning themselves with discussions on the high prices of fruit and vegetables have been circulated by the Auckland Fruit

and Produce Auctioneers' Association urging that the association be represented at future meetings. The association states that at a recent meeting in the Auckland Town Hall certain statements were made from which it could be inferred that auctioneers were receiving more than a just reward for the work they did in distributing perishable foodstuffs. "As such statements are apt to be accepted as true if allowed to go unrefuted for too long, we feel compelled at this stage to enter the lists in our own defence," proceeds the letter. "We, further, are of the opinion tjiat times of emergency are not appropriate to the disruption of existing methods of distribution, whether it be of food, or any other commodity, and for this reason we very much deplore the campaign being carried on against the members of this association; this campaign being based as it is upon inadequate, and, in some respects, inaccurate information."