COST OF VEGETABLES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 2

COST OF VEGETABLES

WIDELY DISCUSSED TOPIC NATIONAL INVESTIGATION. BEGUN BY PRICE TRIBUNAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The ■• most widely-discussed topic among housewives and the general public became yesterday the subject cf official investigation from all angles, when the Price Tribunal began the hearing of evidence on the subject of the high prices of vegetables. As far as the Wellington district and markets in particular are concerned, evidence was given by the president of the Dominion Council of Commercial Growers, Mr B. V. Cooksley, that since 1938 half of the Hutt market garden area had been acquired by the State for housing. On what was still used for market gardens, bad weather conditions, particularly from July on, were estimated to have had a 50 per cent adverse effect on production. He made a plea to the tribunal to ensure that what remained of the Hutt garden land was retained for growing. He cited instances of increases of up to several hundred per cent in the price of seeds and fertilisers. Evidence vzas also given by the representatives of Auckland, Franklin, Pukekohe and Canterbury growers. All growers’ representatives stressed the need for organisation of the industry before any planned production was possible.