BAN ON ORANGES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 453, 22 June 1937, Page 3

BAN ON ORANGES

SOME QUERIES RAISED Not Definite Enough, Say Australia Sydney, June 3. The announcement made by the New Zealand acting-Minister of Customs (Hon. Mark Fagan) that restrictions on the importation of oranges from Australia and elsewhere are to be relaxed, has nUturally attracted public attention here, anVl particularly so among citrus growers. Mr. L. T. Pearce, who is marketing representative of the New South Wales Fruitgrowers’ Federation, discusses the matter this week in the "Sydney Morning Herald.” In an attempt to explain the motives of the New Zealand Government, he attributes this sudden change of policy to ithe ‘'continued public protests” hoard in the Dominion against the exclusion of Australian oranges—protests which have been accentuated of late by <the prevalence of infantile paralysis in the country. Mr. Pefarce is neither grateful nor gracious in his comments on "the apparently beneficial attitude” of the New’ Zealand Government. For he remarks bitterly enough that many people who were “quite indifferent” to the rights or w’rongs of the embargo” were roused to resentment when they found that they had to pay as much as 4d each for oranges, ,and could not get enough of them at that. “Ambiguous Announcement.” It is .not clear why Mr. Pearce imagines that the New Zealand public should be more interested in the profits of Australian orange-growers than in their own hygienic or financial needs. But it is more important to observe that the people of New Zealand in Mr. Pearce’s opinion, are hot likely to gain much benefit from the proposed relaxation of the embargo. By the way, Mr. Pearce has some excuse for complaining that Mr. Fagan’s announcement is ambiguous. For »the phrase “from the beginning

| of December or earlier, if necessary,” j can hardly be termed 'definite, and the offer to admit oranges the ' fly-free area of Australia, subject to ■he production of certificates,” also | requires explanation. Plentiful from June. But, quite apart from the 1 question of the fruit fly, Mr. Pearce does not see how the removal of the embargo on the conditions now indicated it' likely to benefit the Dominion, for from June to December oranges will be plentiful, and therefore cheap. From December onward summer weather will make oranges scarce, and therefore- dearer, and Mr. Pearce suggests that if the Dominion Government waits .till late in the year to lift the embargo, the admission of the Australian fruit arcer that date will offer little alleviation to the strain upon .the housekeeping allowance of the New Zeaand housewife. What the farmers and prjm-ry producers in the Dominion will be most anxious to disccver is whether the relaxation iof the embargo on □ranges will induce the Federal Government to make a reciprocal concession on New Zealand potatoes. Unfortunately the decision on -the point rests, not with \the citrus orchardists of New South Wales, but mainly with, the potato growers of Victoria, and Tasmania; and the question is. still very hard to answer.