CORRESPONDENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2043, 21 November 1907, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Correspondence on public matters is welcomed at all times, but it must bo distinctly understood that this journal is in no way associated with tho opinions of its correspondents]

THE PRICE OF. VEGETABLES,

[To the Editor.] Sir, —“Housewife,” in her latter published -in yesterday's Times, nundo eorno statements that a3ll who ilia'vO' any knowledge of housekeeping expenses moist admit to bo • triuo. Vegetables are ouo, of the most ltpoessary items of elicit, and yet in Gisborne the prices are so pnolhibiitivo tla.it a careful housekeeper has to almost olimhn.a.to them from her bill of fare. Now, Sir, I contend •that this should not he so. The European market gardener is sounding his own death-knell by overcharging to such an extent that lie is losing, and will ccimbinuo to lose, his customers, and is compelling them in sheer salf-dcfetn.ee to deal with rth.o Celestial, whose charges a,re in most cases 100 per cent, cheaper. Tlho European is not paying rnoro rant ter his land, though I admit that his labor is more expensive than that of the Ohinannan. iA,t tilio same time it cannot be so great as to comped him to sell far eighteen-pence that which .the- Ohinaanan sells far sixpence. . Bofaro wc cry out about the Yellow ! Rciril let us finst eximi.no for ourselves the reason of his success. Ho must be making a profit, otherwise he would soon “dhnlt up shiopi.” ft ' is the European himself who is making success to tilio Celestial doubly ! sure. Let the white mail bmn'g 1 diawn his prices to a reasonable llhiing, give civility and attention to his cuistoin-ors, and then the Ohin'amiain’s business wall dwindle to nothingness. I aan sure wo all prefer the white to the ycllllow man —if the white man gives us fair treatment. —Yours, etc., “CONSUMER.” Gisborne, Nov. 20.