OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 June 1942, Page 4

OTHER PEOPLE’S IDEAS

ORANGES & LEMONS (To the Editor) Sir. —Previously I thought that members of Parliament knew all the angles of a subject before they burst forth. After our local member’s tirade on the above subject, I now know that at least he does not. For six years I have been on a diet which calls for the liberal use of citrus fruits. During that period I have bought them regularly, even giving as much as tenpence each for oranges, and ovei’ this price the local retailer had no control. From August onwards I buy New Zealand oranges from the grower b> the case. Previously these have never cost more than 17s 6d a bushel (the ordinary orange case contains 1 1-3 bushels). Late last month I wrote to the grower and asked when his crop would be ready and the price. In his reply, which I enclose, he said prices would be high, pointing out that offset oranges had brought 89s a bushel. This, with freight added, brought the wholesale cost to 9d each. Knowing the above prompted me to inquire into the present position and I find that New Zealand oranges brought 42s per case, 198 count (bushel case), and these small oranges are being sold in Masterton today at 6 for Is. which shows a handsome loss of 9s, plus freight, per case. Now about lemons. As in the case of oranges there is Goverhrrtent control. One Njgw Zealand kind of lem-y ons, the good kind, i.e., Meyer leirions, ? are sold by auction and today they* brought 42s per case, 130 count, which, plus freight, means a cost of 4d each. But what of the other, i.e., the cheap lemons? Well, these are released by the Government to the wholesalers of Wellington in the large number of six cases each per week, and there being eight of these firms, the whole of the Wellington district is getting 48 cases a week. Of this number, Masterton has had. 14 cases so far this month, which is not more than, at the most, three days’ supply. Yet in spite of this, lemons are rotting on the ground in Tauranga, just because they are too small or too large for the Government grade. Apples are another story, but I cannot refrain from pointing out that the Government-controlled price for Delicious has advanced today from 7s 6d to 15s a case.—Yours, etc., FAIR PLAY. Masterton, June 22.