New Zealand

Archives-December 1944

New Zealand wants bananas!

Prices defended by government

NEW Zealanders appear to have become acutely banana-conscious in the last three years. One mention of this fruit is sufficient to send Dominion newspa pers into a heated campaign on banana

supplies and banana prices.

Recent mention by a Fiji resident at a Rotary luncheon in Nelson, NZ, that there were abundant supplies of bananas in Fiji only waiting shipping space to the Dominion, reopened the subject and sent everyone into wild argument.

A message from Fiji, on November 16, should settle the Fijian end of the problem: “A recent shipment to Auckland was said to the smallest ever sent, the reason being that no more bananas were available, as in New Zealand and elsewhere, the calling up of manpower to serve in the armed forces and to work on military construction, had

Pacific Islands

its inevitable effect on production.

Overseas troops also spent money freely on native mats and curios, and in many native villages life for those left at home suddenly became much more comfort able and convenient. No longer was there the same incentive to cultivate the land, and the result is to be seen today in a considerable decrease in native food pro duction.

“In Suva, where bananas grow in almost any backyard the retail price is 12 for sixpence. This does not indicate any great abundance. The situation will improve as men are released from the Army and the general demand for labour declines”.

New Zealand consumers and Island growers who have been howling about the disparity in prices paid by the one

and to the other should be reassured by the following statement by the New Zealand minister of marketing (Mr Roberts) on November 13: “In the first place,” he said, “it has been stated that the Marketing Division pays 5/- a case for bananas in the Islands, the facts are that the Division pays the following prices f.o.b. Island ports: Samoa, 12/9 a case; Fiji 12/4.5 (New Zealand currency); and Tonga, 12/1.

These are the prices which are deter mined between the Division and the sell ing authorities in the various islands.

“It is quite well known that, with the Pacific war, the availability of shipping for bananas and oranges is at a mini mum, but the Division does import into New Zealand every case of bananas that it is possible to procure from the Islands.

“ It is also a fact that the only ship ping point of import for bananas is Auckland, and if other parts of New Zealand are to have a share of the now reduced supplies, the Division has to incur heavy costs in distributing the fruit on a per capita basis, as far south as

Invercargill”. ■

Established 1930