THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. GROWERS' CONFERENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 107, 2 November 1909, Page 11

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. GROWERS' CONFERENCE.

IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED. At 10.30 to-morrow, an important conference of delegates of the various fruitgrowers' associations in New Zealand will be opened in the Dominion Museum. The delegates will be : — Birkenhead and Northcote, Mr. W. Charman ; Bright-water, JYfr. W. Lightband ; Can. terbury, Messrs. F. Sisson, S. I. Fitch, and E. Wilkinson; Feilding, Mr. A. R. Mayo ; Geraldine, Mr. Malcolm Campbell .- Hawkes Bay, Messrs. W. H. Smith and H. Cook; Motueka, Messrs. li. Everett and C. Lowe; Mouteie, Mr. C. H. Mackay; Ngatimoti, Mr. K. Croudis ; Northern Fruitgrowers' Council, Mr. John Parr ; Peel Forest, Mr. W. E. Barker; Port Albeit, Mr. D. Beecrof t ; Riwaka, Mr. A. E. Fry : Stoke, Messrs. A. P. Allport, H. C. Jacka, and E. B. Izard ; Teviot, Messrs. John Bennetts and H. Veale ; Wanganui, Mr. F. Sisson. Messrs. T. W. Kirk, F.L.S. (Director of Orchards), A. H. Cockayne (Government Biologist), and W. A. Boucher (Government i Pomologist) will be the official delegates. ! ' The Minister of Agriculture (Hon. T. Mackenzie) has promised to address the delegates. The Canterbury delegates will move j that there should be registration of i orchards from one tree upwards, all fruit to be sold under a registered brand or the grower's name ; that inspectors should have a definite limited area, jand bo responsible to headquarters in Wellington only, with a view to the better enforcement of the Orchard and Garden Pests Act ; that there should be uniformity of cases, or the net weight be marked on all cases — no second-hand cases to be used without being properly I cleansed ; that them should he better j handling of fruit in shipping ; that fruit J should be carried at railway risk. Other subjects which the Canterbury Association will ask the conference to discuss will be the value of different sprays ; j thorn fences as a menace to orehardisls, experimental stations for different centres, arrangements for obtaining comrbined Dominion orders for various requisites, oil, arsenate, bluestone, etc. ; the non-responsibility of shipping companies for pillage and decay ; municipal or other markets ; and the Auctioneers Act. The Stoke Association delegates will move : "That the Government establish a system of through booking on the New Zealand railways by introducing facilities through tho medium of railways and present steamship companies of booking goods of any sort from and to any and all towns within the Dominion." It is also the intention of the Stoke Association to ask the conference to consider tho effect of the opening of the Panama Canal on the New Zealand fruit industry. Also, that sellers give a guarantee of the purity of sulphate of copper, and that manure analyses are made more lucid to the grower or buyer. "That properly ventilated cars be pro vided for the conveyance of fruit on the New Zealand railways," will be> the text of a pioposal by the Northern Fruil- ] growers' Council. The council will also I urge tho necessity of organisation for the better knowledge of the probable output and distribution of fruit throughout the Dominion. The advisability of having «fruit carried by express tiains will bs submitted ! hy the Teviot Association. 'The delegates of the Ngatimoti Association will ask the, conference to dis; ! cuss the question of opening wholesale' ] 1 and retail fruit stores in the principal I towns of New Zealand. Two proposals have been forwarded by the Hawkes Bay Association, viz. : (1) The advisability of requesting the Government to allow the importation of German owls as an antidote to the small bird pest. (2) That chemists in the Dominion be asked to make an arsenate of lead under Government .guarantee. Mr. A. H. Cockayne is to read r. paper on "Emulsifying Oils," and. a i naper on "Our Fruit Industry, Past and Present Conditions, and Future Pi'ospeKs, with Practical Hints on Fruit> Culture," will be read by Mr. W. A. Boucher.