FRUIT FLY AND OTHER PESTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 30, 5 February 1908, Page 8

FRUIT FLY AND OTHER PESTS

A DIMINUTION RECORDED. Rigid inspection of fruit and sure condemnation of all infected with danger- J ous disease has had a. marked effect upon ; the quality of the shipments sent from j abroad, and the recent records of the j Agricultural Department show a, big di- > mmution in the number of cases condemned when compared with those of November and December. The weekly returns for the principal ports of New Zealand for the period ended 25th Jan- > iKirr, 1908, show that both Christchurch and Dunedin had clean Tecords. At Wei- j lington there were no instances of Mcdi- j tti ranenn fruit fly being 'found 'in tho shipments, but ninety-one eases of pears were rs-shipped to Sydney in consequence of codhn moth being found in them. In ' the same period 35" cases of pineapples and 172 cases of hmons and oranges were found to bs afflicted with scale and were ' pat through the fumigating chamber at . shippers' expense. Ths latest figures to | hand from Auckland show that ten cares of pineapples, one of oranges, nnd one of pears were fumigated for scaly blight during tho week that ended on- tnat date, .while niro cases of pears were condemned and destroyed because of affection by fruit fly. There have been no condemnations in Wellington for fruit fly since the 15th January, and on that occasion only eight cases of fruit were concerned. Tho inspection of retail shops by the i insprciorj of the dapartment )3 being carried on systematically, and occasional seizures are made in Wellington and other centres of fruit which codlin moth j is located, but taken in the average the cases aTe not many. There have been no prosecutions of growers or salesmen as j yet, though both nro liable ; but it is not . intended to give them any more chances of escape ironi their statutory liability in such cases.