PRICE OF POTATOES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 40, 10 November 1917, Page 8

PRICE OF POTATOES

Sir,—7 was greatly interested in an article in The Dominion of Tuesday, Tβ prices of vegetables, and especially with regard to the price of old potatoes. It 6eetns fhnt these are selling at £') per ton, retail, aud the question might well Le aslied: Who is getting tlie big margin between grower and consumer? lu Canterbury, at the present time, and for three months past, potatoes have oten quoted ut from &l to .£2 10s. delivered to merchants' stores, and sacks Included. To-day they can be bought —hundreds of tons of them—for £2 per ton. This week I saw in one store in, 'J'imaru 2500 sacks of good potatoes, every sack of which quantity will have to be picked oven by hanf; it is safe to eay that the owners will sell them to-day for 30s. a ton. In Iho Ashburton district hundreds of eacks of table potatoes, and thousands of sacks of Eeecl, have gone to waste. At Tiinaru over 1000 sacks have been emptied into the rubbish tip. It is safe to bay that 5000 to 0000 sacks lire at the present time rotting in North Canterbury. Surely this is a matter for inquiry by tho Board of Trade. It eeeins scandalous that the- people of Wellington should have to pay at the rate of JK) per ton when they are procurable here for Jl2 or .f:3 per ton.—l am, etc., DISGUST*!!/.