The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1920. SUGAR AND FRUIT.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3432, 11 March 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE .

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1920. SUGAR AND FRUIT.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

.lt is not clearly understandable that New Zealand-grown fruit is largely in over supply, a.nd that there is the greatest difficulty in disposing of it, while dessert apples are from eightpenee to tenpence a pound wherever one goes in the country. Yet the Director of "the Horticultural Division of the Board of Agriculture reports a considerable glut in Cox’s orange pippin apples, and in Williams’ Bon Chretien pears. ‘They also report. that in the \\.'el'lington district dessert apples are being offered at from four to eight shillings a. case, and pears at from four to seven shillings a case—— rhat is from one penny to twopence per pound—-and yet when they get to Tailiape they have to be retailed at eightpenco and ttenpence, in spite of the fact that we have Boards of Trade, Pi'otiteeitlng Connnittees, Boards of Ag'i-ieulture, and inspectors and directors galore to manage and look after such things. During the last few days some profiteering jackals, whose intelligence and common morality are about equally shallow, at about skin deep, have been iiigriiig the moral right for food and ('lo’thln;3j pln'\‘G_\'ols to chzrrge whatever they please. so long as the price they lix is olltainable. II; ‘is truly pitiable -to have these men making exhibitions of ignorance and incapacity tlirough this country ’s newspapers, but so it is. The_v cla'im there is limited supply, and tha.t supply shall only go to the people \vho can pay for it. They say, alinost in these words: The people who cannot pay the price we want for food must starve, and those who cannot buy our clothing must cover their nakedness with whatever they can <_;(‘:t, or go naked. They contend that when supply is short. merchants have a perfect. right to get the highest price they can, just as the consumer gets his needs satisfied at a low, unpayable price. when commodities are in excess of demand. Whllle all economists have long; ago impressed upon mnnliind the tact that in these days of controls and corners the words siipply and (l(‘lllZtlltl are \'lI‘fl!:llly l]l03lllll£_,7”l(’ss terms. Do not these crafty fools have the lie thrust inio their teeth day by day and hour by hour? Of course they do, but thieves and robbers‘, whether profil(‘(‘l‘g or the less common kind, must also of necessity be most shameless liars. While every inch of storage, very nearly, of the Whole Brittish Enipire is congested with food and clothing material, goods being: in such supply that storage cannot be 1-e‘liev-ed, and yet prices remain unprecedently hip;h, and are going higher instead of responding. There is no denyzing the truth of this statement; neither food controllers, nor even the Briiisli l’ai-liainent deny the fact, and Memhers of Parliament. aha the more honest statesmen are a_gitati.ng for prices to he reduced to effect some relief to Sf()l':lf__T(‘. The food and clothing: in these congested stores and in the ships that are choking harbours have fallen into the control of a few men; they have been cornered. and men, women, and children may starve, but the price does not go down. Meat bought at t'onrpence must not be sold under two hundred per cent profit, and wool bought at fifteenpence must not go to the public unless from four hundred to three thousand per cent is extracted. And now a. Director of the Board

of Agriculture publishes thr,ollgllollt New ’/.e-aland that "there is a glut of apples and pears, and a C‘loa-MllOO 01111not be efl:‘ected. Is it any wonder, for peoplc simply cannot aitord to eat appltis and pears at eightpencc to tenpence a pound. The Board of Agriculture reports that they hang on hand, although offered at from four to eight shillings per case; is '.it not clearly apparent that the few men who buy up the cases are refusing to quit 111151 from two to four hundred per cent profit is ifortlicoming‘. But if two hundred per cent was put upon the fruit it would then. retail at from threepcnco to sixpcncc per pound. Will not the silly jackasses who talk and write about supply and demand realise, and in common honesty admit, that while there is a perfectly free, untrammelled, unshackled demand, there is no such thing in these days of free supply of anything for which there is :1 deinanclil -We had to draw attention the other day to the fact that our proiiteeri-ng Government were actually commencing to trade away the rivers and lakes of New Zcalantl to private individuals to be exploited for individual profit, is it any wonder that the whole country is a seething mass of profiteering and trading corruption? We say, designcdly and unhcsitatingly than: most retailers are the victims of the trading orgies in process; they never sought participation, and they have to sell the cornered goods at a price they have no power to alter. or -go out of business. It is also obvious that one of the most shameless crimes is about to be perpetrated with sugar. Rumours thal are overwhelming come from almost undeniable quarters that the price of sugar is going to be increased by permission of the Board of Trade. But now comes a report that leaves no doubt in anybody ’s mind, who thinks, that the sugar price increase is al-‘ ready being prepared for. It seems that Government, Board of Trade, directors, and inspectors are all conspiring with merchants, to insure that when the rise does come neither retailers nor people shall have any share in the increased value of sugar stocks. Sugar merchants have combined and evolved a. scheme whereby retailers are only allowed to buy from one merc.hant; if he cannot get sugar from that one merchanthe must go short, and sequentially his customers must go short. It is repm'ted by GOVernment and sugar people that there is ample sugar to go I'oll.nd if it is not hoarded or cornered; to suggest thafi retailers are hoarding is as audacious as it is dishonest and untrue. It is beyond denial that retailers are only too anxious to let their customers have the sugar. but they are p()\\'e«rlC-Ss; the suggestion that retailers are ‘honl‘ding made in the new scheme to be put in action is :11} linsu‘lt and a lie. The scheme is obviously invented to keep retailers under strict. surveillance to see that. they do not get so much sugar as they are already getting; 8. rise in the price of sugar cmning. and it will be readily understood why merchants are scheming" to keep as min"-h of it in their pos.<ession. as possible. The .l’relnir-r said people \\'C-I'o undoubtedly hoarding sllgax', and when he found this statement ready made for him. was baseless and devoid of truth, he said he was satisfied that eonsuniers were not hOt1I‘~(i‘l.11g sugar. The intention of the new scheme of the merchants is too obvious to come within. the category of cleverness. for it deceives none but 21 t'e.\v, unfortunately among them are sprinl<liu£T Of m-wspziper men who are readily .~'tu!l'— rvlwle by any dislmnest sophist of the «"«‘~r.—n‘.':<ri’-tr-.~'t order. \Vhen sugar prnw‘ do rise. neither retailers nor vou.“.ll7!‘.l‘l‘g will share in the haul, the merchants are taking exreptionnlly fine care of that. Will I\[r Massey “keep his rye on the present aspect of fruit urd s'l;';:.t* }>l‘i."o.<, and inst"uet the li~’*‘ll'<-' 41' Tl':l<le to report?"