QUEENSLAND BANANAS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 110, 11 May 1909, Page 8

QUEENSLAND BANANAS.

v . The proposed new direct steamship service between Melbourne and Fiji, for which, we are informed by cable to-day, a tender has been accepted, will, it is claimed, mean the ousting of the Queensland banana from the Melbourne market by the Fiji fruit, which is said to be "superior in size and flavour." The inter-State steamship companies therefore decided that the freight on Queensland bananas for Melbourne should be reduced from Ist May by 2d per bunch, or nearly 20 per cent, of the present rate. A representative of one of the companies from North Queensland, interviewed in regard to the matter by the Melbourne Argus, said that the statements made that single consignments of 20,000 and 30,000 bunches of Queensland bananas were being brought' into Melbourne was incorrect. The total weekly shipments for Melbourne now the busiest time of the year — did not exceed 10,000 bunches. Prior to the dcs tractive cyclone of 1906 Queensland exported about 2,000,000 bunches of bananas per annum, but last year the total dropped to 400,000 bunches. Ai though worked by Chinese, who cleared them from virgin forest, the banana plantations were as a rule the property of white men, who, five years after occupation, took them over, and set them with sugar-cane. Thus, the sugar indnstr" was expanded. The failure of the banana industry during the last few years had been helped along to a large extent by the restrictions of the Victorian Government. The grower was now_ taxed, owing to these restrictions, by inspection fees at each end — in Queensland at per bunch and l^d per bunch for netting to exclude the fruit fly, and in Victoria at 4s 2d per 100 bunches. In addition, much of the fruit, which was acknowledged to be good, was ordered to *j thrown into the sea at Melbourne, because it had ripened on the voyage. This was also at the growers' risk. Queenslanders claimed that local bananas were not naturally inferior either in size or flavour to those of Fiji, but they were made so by the Victorian Government insisting on only green fruit — which was not matured when cut, and could therefore never attain its natural flavour — being admitted.

There was a fairly heavy sea breaking over the reclamation works along the Hutt liu^ this morning; but it is reported that no damage was done. A man named Henry Fraser Marshall was arrested at Wanganui for alleged theft of a bicycle from the precincts of the Wellington Empire Hotel. He will be charged in the Stipendiary Magistrate's 'Court to-morrow. Pictures to the number of 300 are to hand for the ■Auckland exhibition, whicii is to be opened by his Excellency the (Governor on the 19th inst. It is expected that the total number of exhibits will be about 350. Practically the whole of the pictures are new works, and among them are several very large canvases. Local artists are well in evidence, and every principal centre in the country will be represented Mr. Anderson, M.P., Is reported in an exchange to have said that, though he had been elected ..o oppose the Government, he considered Cabinet should be supported in its retrenchment scheme. He believed in giving credit where credit was due. A characteristic exemplification of the belief of Aucklanders in Auckland, and their profound contempt for Wellington, is contained in a letter written by a citizen of the Northern city to a friend in "the little fishing village on the shores of Cook Strait." He remarks : "You Wellington people will want more than that £250,000 to straighten out your imbecile local folly in such a place. . . . The worst of it ib still ahead of you, and don't you forget it. Take away (a) the money spent there by the army of Civil servants, (b) the money left there by people who have business with the Government, (c) the money left there by people who must pass through Wellington to go from one island to the other, (d) the money spent on account of transhipments of goods, to be consumed, and paid for, in more prosperous parts of tJie Dominion, and what have you left? The trade of the Wairarapa and the West Coast as far as, say, Wanganui. Those things I have mentioned are not produced by Wellington — though she benefits by them. The progress of a city which is due entirely to the production of the country surrounding it is more satisfactory — more lasting, and not so liable to be disturbed. You have no timber, gum, or coal. Our dairying knocks you silly, and we have more horned cattle in this province than in the whole of the rest of the North Island. Our population (Auckland city and suburbs) is now 100,000, notwithstanding all your advantages, and Wellington is mortgaged up to the neck, while we are free. The money Wei ling ton lives on is not produced from within herself, but it is produced outside of her, and when there is a general slump in the country, Wellington, being really a commercial junction, must feel it. ... We will be 250,000 of a city by the time you are 100,000, and living on what we ourselves produce, not on handling stuff for others. . . . Your province is developed nearly to its best — nearly all broken in. Ours is much less than one-third broken in. What will ■ > t be when we are as far advanced in settlement, and railways, roads, etc., as you aye, if we can beat you so easily now?" Messrs. T. Kennedy Macdonold, Ltd., insert a lengthy advertisement in our auction columns of a sale in their rooms at 1.30 to-morrow, of household furnishings, piano, two chesterfield lounge 6, oak suite, also part contents of a gentleman's residence removed from Clifton-terrace. Intending purchasers are requested to inspect before the sale. At the same time the firm will offer an "Empire" typewriter and leather case complete. Since publishing the list, of (heir recent sales last week, Messrs. J. 11. Bethune and Co. report having effected the undermentioned sales of city property: — Claremont-grove — Freehold residential property, having 66ft frontage to Clarc-mont-grove, by a depth of 264ff, with 12roomed residence thereon ; price £1800. Webb-street — Freehold allotment, having 30ft frontage by a depth of 52ft. with 4-roomed cottage ; price £560. Crosbyterrace — 5-roomed residence on section haying 22ft frontage by 64ft deep ; pneo £625. The firm reports a decidedly brighter tone in the property market. I