THE CITY'S FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 115, 8 February 1919, Page 8

THE CITY'S FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

TRADES COUNCIL INQUIRY COMPLAINTS BY RETAILERS Following upon representations made by the Wellington Retail Fruiterers' Association, a committee ot the Trades and Labour Council has been investigating the question as to liow prices are. regulated at the fruit market. It was pointed out to the council that during the epidemic the Government [ fixed the prices of oranges and lemons at 2Jd. apiece wholesale and 3d. .retail,: and it was asserted that the auctioneers .had taken advantage of tlio precedent laid .down in the Order-in-Council, and had .refused to, sell consignments for. less. During the. epidemic a consignment'of 700 cases arrived in Wellington, and 200 were purchased by the Government at the price they themselves fixed, The retailers claimed that owing to_ the embargo having been lifted they should have been able to purchaso the. balance of the consignment at abou.t Ji2 10s. a .case, which was the normal. price, .but the auctioneers persisted in demanding .£3 15s„ which .at the rate of 2ld. a lemon, the purchaser to take the risk of receiving bad fruit. Traders who had been buying in the market for years stated to 1 tlie council's . representatives that .the highest price ever . paid for .lemons wholesale was ,£2. 10s, per Oas.e, except oh ono or two • occasions, when .they went up to <£2 155., therefore it was .contended that on' .the consignment of 700 cases referred to the auctioneers; made a profit of at least <£1 per case over, and above what they, had been accustomed to males for a period of years. Instances were given of orange 9 which were' purchased in pre-war time aj 30s. a case, but vent up to as high- as -'50s. during the iv/ir'period. These had now been'fixed, at 755. a case, and the would-be'.purchaser had the option of taking them or leaving them. retailers, 'claimed' that the orangey were not put up to auction and sold to the highest'bidder, but that the auctioneers fixed a, price, -and held the consignments until they received what they asked. In the alternative, they, ">iit them to other parts of the Dominion. 'Hie failure to put the fruit up to auction was held to be a contravention v of the law, as the Auctioneers' Act provided 1 that the goods'should, be sold.to the highest;bidder, it was stated that tf(is practice was confined not only to ! certain lines of imported fruit, but to locally grown produce and to vegetables, .j An instance was quoted in respect' to onions. A man bought 901b. of onions for 365. 6d., but the following day the balance of the consignment was offered: '■(it 475, Gd. The price had advanced lis. | in 2-1 hours, not on the bidding, but oil ! the price fijwd by the auctioneer. j

Complaint was also made of sacks of potatoes and/cabbages being "packed" by tV producers—good ones being placed on top and others of inferior quality being bidden at the bottom, 'l'ne retailers agreed that legislation should be introduced providing that goods for sale should bo either standardised, or graded, or else be exposed to view. Arising out of the fact that a vessel arrived at Auckland recently with a shipment of bananas which were too ripe to tranship lo Wellington, tho retailers suggested that tho Government should try to arrange for n steamer to trade direct from the Islands to Wellington, which was the natural centre of (he Dominion, and from which transhipments could be made to all parts of the cbuntry. much easier than from Auckland^ Mr. M. J. Heardoil, president of the Trades and Labour Council, stated yesterday that the council lmd- considered the matter thoroughly, and would urge the passing of legislation that would be instrumental in controlling prices lo some extent. It was also very probable that during the municipal contest the main plank in the Labour Party's pintform would be the establishment of municipal markets. This, it was believed, would prove a much more effective way of checking exploitation than anj legislation that could be devised.

In connection with,the matter a representative of-The Dominion was informed by-one'of.'the'-wholesale merchants that if the buyer,» felt they had a grievance then the remedy was in their own hands. It was not mandatory upon them to purchase. what ' was offered. Respecting lemons, his firm considered them to bo their own property, and they maintained that they were perfectly justified, and were acting on strictly business lines,' in endeavouring to obtain their own price. As a matter of fact the lemons were being disposed of, and to members of Die nssooiation at that. It had toJj_e_recognised that whilst some lines migiii show an apparent profit there were heavy losses on others which had to be made up. A recent shipment of apples had been disposed of at a loss, but the retail fruiterers had not suffered, and consequently made 110 murmur. Discussing the matter with the reporter, one member of the Fruiterers' Association was quite frank in stating that he did not think there was anythiriy to complain about. Leihons were very scarce at the present time, and only ineagre quantities were coming to hand. He considered that if the other retailers thought the price asked for the lemons was too high then they could leave the line alone. He personally felt 110 grievance upon the point, and knew of other members of the association who were buying the lemons.