OUR FRUIT FLY BARRIER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 21, 4 June 1908, Page 3

OUR FRUIT FLY BARRIER.

ANOTHER AUSTRALIAN PROTEST. UNTENABLE ARGUMENTS.' Under the heading "A Threatened Export Trade," the "Sydney Morning Herald," in a leading article on May 26, referred at somo length to tho New Zealand fruit regulations. The article, though reasonable in- tone, is slightly at fault on two important points. First, it would bp quite futile to offer us a certificate that tho fruit , when shipped is free" from fruit fly, because-it is not believed to be possible for any expert ,to guaranteo with certainty., that fruit which is apparently clean when gathered will not develop fruit-fly maggots on the journey oven Secondly, the hope that fruit fly would'not thrive in New Zealand lias been thrice shattered in the last two years by outbreaks (fortunately suppressed), at" Blenheim, Napier, and Auckland. The "Herald" article says:—

. "The New Zealand Government's embargo upon the, importation of Australian fruit into the Dominion is a sufficiently . serious matter to engage the very earnest attention of the Minister for Agriculture here. While tho -prohibitive regulation nominally applies to all the Australian States, it has special effect as against New South TVales and Queensland. They are the shippers of the kind, of fruit which- New Zealand mostly buys from the Commonwealth, namely, citrus fruit, and they happen to be the two. States which acknowledge, to having the "flv," among other pests, in some of their orchard districts. -. When, therefore, New Zealand ■decrees that no fruit from these States should be admitted unless accompanied by an official certificate . that the fruit in'question came from orchards distant not less than one mile from an infected centre, it is quite understandable that the Department of Agriculture could not, take the responsibility of issuing such a certificate. All that a.conscientious depart/mental . inspector- could do would be to say that -a given consignment of fruit was clean: and this should be enough for the New Zealand authorities. If,, how. ever, they .insist on compliance with this regulation in its present form, tho fruit trade of New South. Wales and Queensland with New Zealand will be killed. V " Of course, we can quite appreciate tho anxiety of New Zealand, to guard'her own brchards against the introduction of any further pests, but we need to be sure that-her real object is not merely an extreme form of protection to local orchardists. - Victoria threatened to carry these left-handed protectionist tactics to fancy lengths only 'quite recently, but changed her mind when Mr, Perry showed her that it was the sort nf game which two could play. Now Zealand should remember that she exports largely of produce to. this market; and if we should demand impossible guarantees as to its; freedom from disease before admitting any more of it—well, it would only show that we also have our'apprehensive .'periods.: It 'is, to be inferred from the utterances of the New Zealand Minister that the chief fear is' of the fruit-fly; but all.that is known of its habits points to the strong probability, amounting almost to certainty, that this pest could hot livo in New Zealand temperatures. Now-Zea-land, like any other, country, is justified in seeing that she gets only clean fruit, but this can be done without putting an arbi-trary-stop to a shipping trade."