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Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21195, 19 August 1940, Page 11

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MINISTER ANto POTATOES (By Telegraph.—special to Times) TIMARU, Saturday “The Minister of Marketing (the Hon. W. Nash) let us down very i badly over potatoes,” said Mr W. j. Fletcher at yesterday’s meeting of the executive of the South Canter- . bury Farmers’ Union, when report- j ing on a deputation that waited on Mr Nash recently urging the Gov- ! ernment to fix a minimum price for | potatoes. Mr Fletcher read a telegram from ! Mr Nash stating that the Govern- I ment had decided not to fix a price, j but would make every effort to stimulate demand and extend the overseas market. Mr Fletcher said that not so many years ago, Mr Nash went through the country deploring the wastage of food in other parts of the world, such as the burning of j coffee in Brazil, but in his own coun- > try today, the same wastage was go- j ing on. Hundreds of acres of pota- | toes were still undug, said Mr ' Fletcher, and there were hundreds of tons of potatoes for which there was no local market, yet the I growers could see a market twelve I hundred miles away was hungry for ! potatoes. The present position of the potato market was brought about by

an appeal from the Government to growers to grow potatoes. The following resolution was carried: “That this meeting emphatically protests against the treatment meted out to potatoes growers and urges the immediate abolition of the maximum price fixed by the Government, this being particularly necessary in view of the effect on the approaching planting season.”