CENTRAL OTAGO VINE AND FRUITGROWERS' ASSOCIATION.

A meeting of the members of the Central Otago Vine and Fruitgrowers' Association was held at the Chamber of Commerce on Friday night, Mr A. Bathgate presiding. The Chairman said : As you are all aware, a committee was appointed after the close of the lecture dtlivered recently by Signor Bragato to consider the best me* us of prcmotiDg vine and fruit oulture in Central Otago. This committee decided that the best means to be adopted in the first instance to farther the end in view was to form an association, which might possess a more distinot entity and exercise greater influence than a mere nameless committee. It was also found that to do any good the association should obtain at least a modest supply of the sinews of war. Accordingly the committee formed themselves iuto an association, and decided that co soon as 100 members were obtained, at a subscription of ss, a meeting should be called to adopt a constitution and elect office-bearers. It is for this purpose that you have been invited here tonight. Before dealing with these matters it I may be as well that I should indicate what the functions of the association might be and in what manner it can promote fruit culture. Fruit culture is a subject which has received little or no attention in this part of the colony. In saying this I do not mean to imply th&t no fruit is grown hero, but that, with very few exceptional cases, it has not been made "a business of, or carried on in a systematic manner, You will, perhaps, bo told that it is no use trying to go in for fruitgrowing here as it will not paythat your informant was in such a district where tons of apples were rotting on fcbe ground ba»

j causa it would not pay to pick them. And yet 1 it pays the people in Tasmania to pick their fruit and pay freight to New Zealand. Snrfcly there is something wrong here, and it will be one of the functions of this association to find out what is wrong, and if possible, to find also the remedy. Probably, if inquiry were mide into the cause of the failure to find a profitable market for the fruit in the case I have referred to, you would find the circumstances to be something "like the following:— The owner of the orchard would probably be a farmer who had a few dozen treeß of as many different kinds of apples, and he had, perhaps, reluctantly diverted his labour from other farm work to gather and pack a few cases of fruit to send to the Dunedin market. These cisos would be filled with apples of all sorts and size's and no dealer or fruiterer would look at them or would give more than a nominal price, so that the result of the trial cases would be a failure. Now, had the farmer made fruit-growing a business, he would have had all his trees of one or two good keeping sorts, and would h&vo graded his fraifc, discarding all small and all defective specimens, and would have been able to offer a lino of say 25 or 50 or even 100 cases of good, uniform, marketable apples of one variety, and in that case I think be would have found the remit very different. In other words, anyone desirous of doing any good at fruit-growing must conduct his operations in a systematic and businesslike way. One thiDg that militates against fruit culture here is that the railway freight is too high. The authorities are not, I think, sufficiently alive to the importance of fostering nascent industries by grantiDg freight concessions. It was no uncommon thiDg for railway companies at Home to give freo passes for a period to persons who would build houses on their lines of railway, for they knew that such apparent liberality was profitable. Now, with such a coinmGdifcy as fruit, which is not a bulky one, it would in my opinion pay to carry it at an almost nominal rate. Suppose it involved the attaching an extra truck cr two to a train which had to run at any rate, the only real cost to the Government would te the tear and wear of the trucks aotually used for the carriage of the fruit. A New Zealand railway man would probably tell you that it cost so much per mile to run the train, and that unless each truck earned its proportion of the total cost the contents of such trucks were carried at a loss; but if the fruit trucks were not there the coat of the running the train would be just tbe same, so it is difficult to see where the loss would come in. Then, if the fruitgrowers prospered, they would require more back loading and have the more money to spend in travelling themselves. The association should, therefore, endeavour to have the railway freights on fruit cut down to the lowest possible point. Fruit culture, and especially vine culture, is a subject on which the average Bdtish agriculturist is profoundly ignorant. Much good could, therefore, bo done by tbe association publishing leaflets containing conciae information on the subject for distribution or sale amongst these desirous of embatking in the indastty. With regard to Central Otago in particular it would be the duty of the assouiation to ascertain what land was available for tho purpose, and to ke?p a record of such f.nd timi;«r information. It migl.t a'so ascertain lie test kiDds of vines and fruit trees for cultivation in different localities, and where supplie3 could be obtained. It might aJso organise a special settlement by opeuing a register of those who were willing to join and inducing the Government to set apart a buitable block of land for the purpose. It might promote a company for fruit o? vinegcowing, or one which might conduct its operations on the plan of Chaffey Bros., of Mildura, by obtaining

and irrigating a large area whioh could be sublet to intending cultivators* Yet another thing which the association might do wou'd ba to .endeavcur to induce tho Government to establish an experimental nursery under tho cxre of a competent man impoited from California or elsewhere, who could imtruct peoplo in the art of cultivating, and drying, and otherwise preserving fruit. Thero aro risks attending the establishment of a now industry, and experience has generally to be paid for, and though I do not altogether believe in relying on the Government for everything, I do not think we would be aeking too much of the community as a whole if we asked them to pay for some of the necessary experience, as it would not be a very costly matter in the first instance, and would probably ultimately pay ; and if it resulted iv the settling of a number of successful vignerons and fruitgrowers oa the land it would prove a national benefit. The Government have already done much by appointing experts to advise on such matters; but valuable as such atsUtance is, more must be done. Facilities for cbtaining praclionl trbining arc required. The advice of peripatetic experts would be of much greater value to a man who already had some knowledge of tho subject than it could possibly be to one who had none. It is within my own knowledge that persons have left tbia colony for both Mildura and California to grow fruifc, and yafc Mr Blackmore tells ua that "nowhere in the world had he seen a district better adapted for fruit-growing than Central Otago." I firmly believe that there are large possibilities in the fruit-growing industry in this district. At present fruit is an atticle of luxury, whereas it ought to be an article of food. Were the production of it systematically gone about, a steady supply at a lower price than the present retail prices would increase the demand, and slill pay the grower well. The system of fruit- , drying, which has been perfected by the Calii forniaus of late years, is only in its infancy, and distant as we are from European markets, I see no reason wby we should not be able to lay down our dried fcuit in the London marktt as cheaply as the California^, though I balicve tho bulk of the Cnliforuian output is absorbed in the Eastern States. The asfooiation should obtain information regarding prices in other markets, for though it nlusb be some years before we could supply tho local markets, we | musb eventually look to doing an export trade, aud anyone embarking in the industry would probably desire some reliable information on such points. I have not touched upon the subject of wine-grow ing, which was dealt with by Signor Bragnto recently, but as many pereoas seem to think that the mania, if not tho only object tLo a6uoci&tion would have in view, I have endeavoured to indicate that there are other branches of fruit culture which demand attention. I bavc> I bope, said enough to show that the association has m»ny useful functions to perform, and I expect that they will soon be able to answer the question—" What sbaU wo do with our boys ?" by replying, " Send them to Central Otago to grow fruit." A letter was read from Mr S. N. Brown, who apologised for his non-attendance and forwarded tho following communication which he had received from a friend :: — • In view of the meeting of the association called for tonight I would beg to direct your attention to an article in the Australasian of 27th April last in which appeared a description of a vineyard called Springvale, at Ararat, Victoria, tho proprietor of which, a Mr Jackson, had turned his attention to the production of un/crwented itrine, which is desci ibed as a very pleasant, wholesome drink, which had " caught on " so that he ventured to predict it would be the "comiug drink in Australia, and the demand for it had been so largo that be was goiDg to largely increase his make of it next season. As this would disarm all opposition from the Prohibitionist party to the " studding of Central Otago with wine presses/ I think it is worth the attention of the association. A draft of a constitution of the association was then read by the chairman and adopted with one or two slight araendmeuta. It eet forth inter alia fcbafc the objoefc of the association should be the promotion of vine and fruifc culture in Otsgo, and especially in the district known a3 Central Otogo. The following office-bearers were elected :—: — President, Mr A. Bathgate ; vice-preudeat, Mr B. Hallen3t3in ; secretary, Mr S. N. Brown ; treasurer, Mr A. O. Stronach; committee— Messrs Howden, Hazlett, Nix-on, T. Brown, A. M'Donald, Colclough, aud the Hon. T. Fergus. The association, it may be stated, now numbers about 150 members.

VINE-GROWING IN OTAGO CENIRAL. We (Dunst»u Times) have made inquiries from a few of tbe residents about who have been in the habit of growing grapes, and we find that this last year has beeu an exceptionally good one for grapes. The flavour ia generally spoken of as perfect, and nob at all insipid. We are sorry that we are not able to give a f jll list of what all the gardoas in this district produced during the past year, as so many have not kepi a couufc, but we publieh a li»t of a few, which wo hope will prove lo the public that in Central Otago wo can atlea3t grow grapes, aud good ones, in abundance. oiiapks anowN during the past season. Mr B. Naylor, Clyde... .., ... about 2cwt Mr J. Kelman, Alexandra ... ... ab ut 12cwt Mr W. Thovera, Alexandra .V. 3001b to 4001b Mr W. Noble, Alexandra .., .".. 200 bto 3001b Mr Kinr.aird, Alexandra „; <■.. 2001b to 3001b Mr Nieper, Alexandra ... .;. 1001b Rev. J. Lothian, Alexandra ... 201b Mr Grimstone, Alexandra ... M . 50lb Mr Gards, Alexandra ... ... 501b Mr Hansfonl, Alexandra «. ... 301b Mr Closs. Alexandra... ..< .•. 301b Mr Steel. Alexandra 301b to 401b