FISH BY POST.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1472, 21 June 1912, Page 7

FISH BY POST.

4 MR. ELL AND HIS 'CRITICS. The lion. H. G. _Ell, rostnin.«ter-Cten-nrnl, is in no way dismayed by the criticism which has been directed at his proposals to transmit (ish ntwl fruit by post. Much of the criticism, he remarked yesterday, had been in the nature, of goodhumoured banter and eliaflf, and the spico of novelty in the idea, had no doubt c:iused a little surprise. People would no longer laugh, however, when they began to experience the benefits of the system. Soruo of his critics hart asked to be told what a postman would do with a forty-pound hapuka, and numerous other questions of a iiko nature had been propounded. What •was actually proposed was to carry fish in domestic quantities, and this would, bring a useful article of diet within the reach of people by whom it was now unattainable. There wore plenty of people in country towns, Mr. Jill remarked, who never saw fish as matters now stood, but could get it as often as they liked if it were delivered by posl. As showing how seriously some people had taken up tho idea, he mentioned that one firm of fish dealers had offered to contribute £s0 to assist the Department in advertising the system of delivering fish by post. As to perishable fruit, Mr. Ell continued, postal delivery would enable it to be carried direct from the grower to the consumer. The heavy expenses incidental to the retailing of grapes, strawberries, and similar fruit, by fruiterers, would be eliminated, and the cost of living', might in this way be considerably reduced. The new deliveries will be inaugurated over a restricted area, and extended as the innovation grows in popular fnvour. Mr. Ell hopes that n start will be made at an early date, and is confident that the enterprise will confer voidable benefits upon the public.