ORCHARD COSTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 November 1943, Page 2

ORCHARD COSTS

AND PRICES FOR FRUIT FEDERATION’S CHALLENGE TO MINISTER. FOLLOWED UP BY CHARGE OF INCONSISTENCY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. In a statement today the Fruitgrowers’ Federation says the failure of the Finance Minister, Mr W. Nash, to accept its challenge to publish the findings of the special Government committee on the production costs in the fruit industry, must be accepted by the public as an indication that the fruitgrowers’ case is unanswerable. “In previous statements,” it is added, “the Minister sheltered behind the stabilisation regulations, but how can he reconcile this attitude with the recent pronouncement of the Government that all Army labour used for harvesting this season’s crop must be paid for at 2s 6d an hour whereas last year the rate was 2s, the present stabilised award rate for adult male orchard workers? How is the grower to meet the additional cost from the present return and why talk of stabilisation Yyhen the award rate for orchard workers has been increased 25 per cent for Army labour for the coming harvest season? Where is the consistency?”