The Duty on Fruit.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 75, 25 September 1895, Page 3

The Duty on Fruit.

The Dunedin Star has the following on the fruit duty question :-The growers of fruit who have clamoured for an increase of duty are to be placed in the same category as " the dog in the manger " of the fable — they will neither provide the market with plentifnl supplies of Rood quality nor allow the community to be supplied from other colonies. The Premier expressed himself on Tuesday evening much to effect that it wa3 absurd making such a fuss about on additional halfpenny on the pound of fruit. Does he not remem* | ber that it was the additional straw that broke the camel's back ? Captain Russell truly affirmed that, taking one thing with another, the new duty wonid raise the price to the consumer by 100 per cent. It is nothing, of course, to Mr Seddon, hia colleagues, and the Ministerial hangers on, who all enjoy snug political incomes ; but is a very serious matter to the community, and especially to the poorer classes, who are thus practically deprived of one of their few little luxuries, and have to maintain out of a grinding taxation those who are thus indifferent to their interests.