THE HIGHEST BIDDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 6

THE HIGHEST BIDDER.

NEW LAW IN FORCE. MEANT FOR CIIRISTCHUBCH. The Auctioneers' Amendment Act, ivith its provision that every sale. of fruit, vegetables, or fish shall be made to the highest bidder, and that no auctioneer shall refuse a bid from any person offering cash for the goods on tho fall of the hammer, appears to have been designed expressly: to prevent a system "of trading that has heretofore existed in Christchurch, and. nowhere else in New Zealand. That, _at any rate, is the position as explained by leading "Wellington auctioneers to a Dominion - reporter, who made inquiries at the fruit and produce marts yester- . ■ "Tho new Act," said one, "makes no difference to "us. Anybody can buy at tho sales here, if they will put down the cash, and t-ako delivery; and the highest in tho land could not take a case of fruit away without paying cash for it. The auction sales have. never been restricted to the trade, and, as a matter of fact, hundreds of private individuals come down to tile mart of a morning to buy a case of fruit. The system is tho same in Auckland and .Dunedin.

A Threatened Boycott. "In Christchurch," he continued, "the retailers- banded together and threatened to boycott the auctioneers, if they sold to outsiders. The -auctioneers yielded to tho pressure this put upon them, and accordingly nobody who was not a member of the retailers 1 organisation could buy a case of fruit or a sack of potatoes at any of the auction sales hi Christchurch. The result- was: lower prices to tlio grower, but the consuming public- did not apparently get the benefit of that. People herd -talk about dear fruit, but they don't know what it is. Lot tliem go"to Christchurch!" Another auctioneer remarked that he believed it was illegal, even before tho new Act was passed, to refuse to sell to tho general public. "And yet," he remarked, "you could have seen, a short time ago, notices posted up in all the marts in Christchurch, stating that sales would only bo mado to persons in the trade."

No Chinese Need Apply. More. than one of those who were interviewed mentioned tho well-known fact that the retail fruit and vegetable shops in Christchurch are all carried on by Europeans—another condition in which Christchurcli is unique among New Zealand cities. The Wellington auctioneers did not appear to think that the absence of the Chinese fruiterer from Christclrarch was due to the organisation already alluded to. They attributed it to jtlio general anti-Chinese feeling, and 'one said that a certain amount of. pressure had been brought to hear upon the owners of shops to prevent them from accepting Chinese as tenants.. He was able to state that, many applications had been made to owners of city property at Christchurch by Chinese wishing to lease premises for greengrocery purposes, and ho believed that all such applications had been refused.