COOK ISLANDS FRUIT.

Evening Star, Issue 21743, 11 June 1934, Page 2

COOK ISLANDS FRUIT.

TO TUt KIOTO W

Sir, —In your issue of May 29 appears a paragraph reporting the disapproval of Auckland fruit merchants of a proposal made to establish a Fruit Control Board for Cook Islands fruit.; An Auckland contemporary' reports the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, after hearing a deputation of Auckland fruit importers venting such considerable spleen on the Cook Islands Department for putting forward these proposals, that one is prompted to seek the reason why. 1 have turned for information to the parliamentary reports of the Cook Islands Department, and find in the report for 1933 a reference to fruit that is significant. It reads: —“,Aitutaki: The orange crop was' a l , very heavy one, but owing to the small demand for fruit in the New Zealand markets . . . ■ a large portion of the crop was lost. The Union Company carried the fruit to the New Zealand markets in good condition. For the first five shipments only Is fid per case (fruit only) was paid, and had to be taken out in trade.” If, as is possible, the Auckland fruit merchants are the principal purchasers of this fruit, and when it is considered that a case of oranges contains anything up. to twenty dozen oranges or more (bought for -Is fid a case in trade in the Islands), and is sold in -the New Zealand auction markets at up to anything between 20s and 30s a case, and retailed in Dunedin at 3d an orange, there'.'is perhaps a good explanation of the wrath of the Auckland vested interests against a State department that presumes to put forward any proposals for upsetting the present arrangements.—l am, etc,, Hungry For Oranges. June 11.