HAWKE'S BAY ORCHARDS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 805, 30 April 1910, Page 8

HAWKE'S BAY ORCHARDS.

■WHAT ARE IMPROVEMENTS? : ..A Hawke's Bay "orchardist informed a ;DoMiNibk. representative yesterday that within the last few weeks a couple of acres of grass land in the vicinity of Hastings .wore purchased for fruitgrowing at £100 per acre. During the depression in the latter part of last year 18J- acres of modern Orchard in very.nearly full bearing were-sold at £92 10s. per acre. Our informant states that 'orchard land around Hastings is now valued at £120 an acre. Before the development - of- the fruit industry in-Hawke's: Bay the same land was selling-for agricultural purposes at £40.per acre. The orchards had thus been responsible for a considerable increase in. value, and growers had been muchr aggrieved at the-refusal of the Valuation Department to' make allowance for orchards, as" iniproyemonts when assessing the 'Unimproved value of the' land' in the district. This the fruit-grower in question considered to be a great .hardship. An orchardist, ho pointed out; had -to spend five or six pounds •per acre in the purchase ,of trees-alone, at a shilling a,tree. Then fie had to wait four, or five years until the trees grew, ,and not only stand out of his money in the meantimo, but put in- a large amount of labour in pruning and cultivating- during; 'those years.After all this, it .-was .discouraging .to find that.the. State, regarded the enhanced value of. his land 'purely as' so much une'trned increKicnt created .th« community ißdhot bytho- individutl. Aske/l'rTvkat -he considered th» net return from modern orchards in full . bin Ting in Hawke's Bay to work •ut; at, inr -infermant slated that, after', deducting..'working expenses, 'he would .'. pl*ce a • rea«o»abU expectation .'at .£3O per acre per aunuih. .

- Following good wb«at and wool season? the number of farmers retiring from ac iive work in comfortable circumstances is quite a feature in many parts of New South Wales, as well as in other States. It is quite common, says the' Sydney "Herald," to find in different centres m«n who. have resolved to take, it easy alter a life, of stronuous toil on tho land. 'Ie some case 3 they sell out to newcomers, in others hand the property "over to the next generation,..retiring to live.in the town or tho metropolis."