WILL FRUIT BE RATIONED?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 57, 4 September 1943, Page 5

WILL FRUIT BE RATIONED?

"Growers throughout New Zealand are thoroughly dissatisfied with the present price paid to the industry by the • Government," stales the official organ of the New Zealand Fruitgrowers' Federation. The price, it was contended, was "insufficient for the needs of the fruit growers to carry on at all." The industry's case has been presented in full to the Stabilisation Commission. Word has been received that this evidence has been considered by the , Commission and that a special committee has been appointed to investigate the whole position. The special committee will' consist of representatives of the Stabilisation Commission, the Price Tribunal, the Internal Marketing Department, and the Department of Agriculture. A meeting of the executive of the federation directors has been called for next week.

The federation journal, "The Orchardist," remarks that whereas a year or two ago there was a glut of fruit on the market, there is now a shortage, and the Government's intention as announced is clearly to take a closer grip of the crop than hitherto. If all needs are to be satisfied—that is, civilian and Armed Forces —a system of rationing must be devised, and the Government is actually in the position of having to bargain with the grower for supplies. If the grower is "robbed of the incentive to produce, the Government will be left with a fruit shortage more serious than ever. If, on the other hand, the Government is ready to meet the grower, and make it worth while for him to retain his holding, the grower in turn is more than ready to co-operate in every possible way."