PASSION FRUIT-GROWING.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10771, 18 January 1932, Page 2

PASSION FRUIT-GROWING.

Sir, —We read in your paper that Mr J. A. Nash, M.P., has made a proposal to relieve the unemployment problem by settling a number of unemployed on small holdings of about 10 acres of cheap land, and that the plants would be provided, and in nine months the passions would be in full bearing: there would he two crops annually, returning approximately £75 per acre. I think, Mr Editor, that statements of that kind should not pass unchallenged, for there is a possibility that some of the unemployed, and others as well, who know nothing about passion fruit growing, may believe it. and start off with a wrong idea about the results.

As I have grown passion fruit more or less for many years, 1 know a little about them, and have no hesitation in saying that Mr Nash’s statements are at least misleading. The cheap land he recommends would be of no use for passions without a few years’ work on it. to bring it up to a good standard, for there is no more gross feeder than passions, and no land is too rich for them, in fact they will thrive whore citrus trees thrive, and just about nowhere else.

About the plants being provided, that, is a. comparatively small item; it is the fences for training them on that costs the money. Ter do it properly it cannot be done for less than £SO per acre, and in most cases a good deal more. When Mr Nash states that passions are in full bearing in nine mouths. I come to the conclusion that if he is not a company-promoter in his spare time, someone has been pulling at his, lower extremities, for as a matter of fact the planter gets no return whatever the first year, and not much the second. About the two crops annually. There is no such tiling a* two crops. You may get an odd freak of a passion fruit late in the season, but they are of no use, and are invariably as empty a,s an M.P.’s promises at election time. There is no place in New Zealand where passions thrive better than .round about Tauranga (I mean the edible variety), and there should bo a good future for them, but I am certain there is none of the get-rich-quick Mr Nash leads, or rather tries to lead, us to believe there is. for according to his figures it should ho possible to make 10 acres of cheap land produce £750 annually. It would be interesting to know why some of the M.P.’s do not ’grow passions instead of getting into passions over legislation, at a miserable £450 a year (less 10 per cent). They are losing £3OO a year according to Mr Nash, besides the risk and expenses of an election, Mr Nash’s statements remind me of a certain Minister of Agriculture who was asked if a cow’s ears sit in front or behind its horns, and he nad to admit he did not know. Thanking you in anticipation, Mr Editor. —I am, etc., C. HANSEN. Tauranga, January IGth., 1932.