AUSTRALIAN DRIED FRUIT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 267, 7 August 1929, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN DRIED FRUIT

IMPORTANT SOLDIER SETTLEMENT INDUSTRY ACUTE MARKETING PROBLEMS Mr. A. Henshall, vice-president of the Victorian Returned Soldiers’ League, who is at present visiting New Zealand in order to endeavour to obtain a preferential duty on dried fruits, particularly raisins, was interviewed by a “Dominion” reporter yesterday. Mr. Henshall is a soldier-settler grower of dried fruit at Red Cliffs, and is vice-president of the Victorian branch of returned soldiers, with a membership cf about 20,000. It fell to his lot to collect the data and prepare and present the case for soldiersettlers that was stated before Mr. Justice Pike at an inquiry into soldier settlement ordered by the Commonwealth Government, the findings of which were published in “The Dominion” yesterday. He is also intimately connected with the packing and marketing of dried fruits. The home of the dried fruits production of the Commonwealth of Australia, Mr, Henshall explained, is along the western half of the Murray River and its tributaries, the hub being Mildnra, in th. far north-west of Victoria, some 370 miles from Melbourne. Prior to soldier settlement, Australia and New Zealand absorbed practically the total output of about 15,000 tons at ■prices that were very remunerative to the growers. After the cessation of hostilities, the various State Governments utilised the Murray Valley as one of their main fields of repatriation, with the result that the output is now some 60000 tons, 87 per cent. of which has to be exported against bitter competition from the huge Californian annual surplus. The economic result has been to reduce the price to the grower from around £7O per ton down to £26 per ton. Pioneer Irrigation District. Mildura, the pioneer irrigation district of Australia, and its adjoining settlements,” said Mr. Henshall, “produces approximately 45,000 tons of dried fruit annually, and the bulk of industry is in the hands of returned soldier settlers. Red Cliffs (10 miles from Mildura) is the largest soldier settlement in the Commonwealth, if not in the world, and is composed of 700 returned soldiers from the British armies, equal treatment having been meted out to all soldiers, irrespective of whether they were Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, or British, with the result that practically every arm of the British Army is there represented, some 30,000 acres of virgin bush were taken over by the Water Supply Commission in 1921; the largest pumping plant in the Southern Hemisphere erected and hundreds of miles of channels were scooped out to run the water to irrigate this vast area. Hundreds of returned soldiers were employed in clearing, grubbing, and getting the land ready for planting, and after many difficulties inseparable from the commencement of any large and new irrigation settlement, the first vines were planted in August, 1921. Some 700 blocks, each approximately 15 acres, have now been allotted, and are in full bearing, having produced last season 16,500 tons of dried fruits, 60,000 cases of fresh grapes, and some thousands of cases of oranges. “A thriving township has sprung up out of the bush,” continued Mr. Henshall, “and the postal and railway revenue is amongst the highest outside the four chief cities of Victoria. .The settlers being entirely returned soldiers, mostly married after the war, it is not surprising that the birth-rate is the highest in the world, and the death-rate is one of the lowest. _ Marketing Problems. “With the rapid increase in production, both in Australia and California, marketing problems began to present themselves, and instead of the competency settlers hoped to enjoy after their years of waiting and working until their vines came into bearing, they were faced with the • prospects of prices that would not return the cost of production. Arrangements were completed with Great Britain and Canada that have helped considerably, despite the frantic price-cutting that is experienced from competitive United States organisations, but satisfactory conditions could never be arrived at between the representatives of the Commonwealth and Dom'nion Parliaments. “The Returned Soldiers’ League of Australia. being vitally interested in the position of its thousands of soldier settler dried fruitgrowers, has now taken the matter in hand. and. firm in the belief that the British Empire is the greatest economic unit that the world has ever known, is working to promote Empire trade along the lines recommended by the British Empire Economic Commission s report. It is with this objective in view that the Australian League is making its representations to the Returned Soldiers Association of New Zealand, confident that the mutual understanding and respect arrived at under the strenuous conditions from 1914-1919. still exist, nnd. further, giving the assurance that any request made by the New Zealand body for any specific reciprocal agreement, based on the lines of the British Economic Commission’s recommendations, will receive the whole-hearted and powerful snnnnrt of the league throughout Australia.”