IN OTHER CENTRES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 241, 4 July 1908, Page 6

IN OTHER CENTRES.

(BI TBI,EGRArH—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS.) AUCKLAND. _ .July 1. The 1 total amount - in Customs duties at tho port of Auckland for tho month of June was £47,234 '9s. Id., as compared with £01,496 19s. 2d. for Juno,-1907, a do-, creaso of £7262 iOs. Id., which is largely l attributable to the operation of tho now tariff which camo into force a few months ago. In beer duty £2117 6s'. lOd. was collected, as against £ISO 6 7s. 7d. for tho corresponding month of last year, an increase of £310 19s. 3d. The month has not been a very good one in respect of the smaller lines of exports, but the larger lines all show satisfactory increases. Timber shows an increase of over £6000 worth, and the gold export has increased largely, by over £103,000 in value, but the output of wool, although an increase in'quantity of 25,0001b., dropped in value by £5042.' The silver export has gone up by £8118, kauri gum by £21,916, and cfieeso by £1830; hut butter, frozen meat, hemp, hides, poultry, and tallow show small decreases. Fruit Fly A statement by a fruit importer apropos of tho outbreak of fruit fly at North Shore somo months ago, that tho fly could not exist' in New Zealand owing to the climate, was referred by a "Herald" reporter to Mr. V/. A. Boucher, the Government Pomologist, yesterday, and met with denial. Mr. Boucher backed up his contention byproducing a tube containing 204 lusty specimens of the fly roared from "tho infected friut, and a jar or peaces and nectarines which w.e're sadly,the worso for tho . grub. "There must be three or four generations of them, said the pornologist. Asked as to what bad been done to keep the pest in check, he said

that in eradicating the fly the method was to narrow the infection as far as possiblo, and by keeping a watch over late fruits and oranges in particular, to secure the larvae of the latest hatched flies of the season. "By destroying those," said Mr. Boucher, "wo prevent the appearanco of any of tha flies the following season to attack the early fruits.", At the present time, it was pointed out, a careful house-to-house inspection of the city and suburbs was being made, with a view to locating every orange tree within a radius of at least five miles. _ "And so far;" added Mr. Boucher, "there is no trace of the, fly." Robbed. A visitor from the country, .charged,with drunkenness at tho Police Court yesterday, informed Mr. Kettle, S.M., that he. had come from Ohakuno on Saturday _ with a bankbook • showing deposits totalling £26 and £12 in cash, and had been robbed of the lot. ' Sergeant Hendry said that payment for the £26 had been stopped. Mr. Kettle remarked that there was a large number of men in Auckland who made it a practice of robbing new arrivals in. the town. "You are one of the pigeons who have been plucked by them," concluded Mr. Kettlo, who lined the defendant ss. and costs. '