FRUIT AND EGGS EXPORT

Evening Star, Issue 21722, 17 May 1934, Page 12

FRUIT AND EGGS EXPORT

SALES F. 0.8. DOMINION PORTS SOUGHT MR REILLY'S MISSION Seen by a reporter before he left Dunedin this morning for the trip with his wife to the Old Country, Mr E. Oswald Reilly said that he needed a holiday after'being tied to business here for over thirty years, so that his object was partly pleasure and rest, but mostly trade. “ 1 am going Home,” he said, “ with some of our apple and pear shipments from Otago, to see how these are sold on the London market, and see if it is •possible to develop f.0.b., sales at New Zealand ports, because I am inclined to think that at no distant date this will be the only safe method to be adopted by the fruitgrowers. I maintain that the grower should be" a grower pure and simple, and if he can effect sales on an f.o.b. basis, at a slightly over cost of production price, then we can establish the industry on a sound footing. The haphazard way of forwarding on consignment, getting an advance, and then, at the end of the season having to return a large portion of the advance to the consignee, does hot make for stability, and in my opinion is not a sound way of doing business. I hold that the grower should, when he produces his fruit and places it aboard in a marketable condition, be able to draw his payments, and to balance his account and see exactly how he stands without having to wait as they have done in the past, an indefinite time, and then find they have made a serious loss., “ I am interested also in the development of the export of eggs, and have had various conferences with Otago and Southland egg producers, and my object is to see what we can do in the way of f.o.h. sales to Great Britain and to "Canada (Montreal). T believe the lime has now arrived when the egg producers in New Zealand will have to consider the advisability of producing a different quality egg, and I am a strong believer in the intermingling of tlie_ Asiatic and Mediterranean blood. I believe the time has arrived when the poultry farmer will find that it will be entirely in his interests to breed a class of poultry that has more stamina and constitution than the present typo of Leghorn which is now practically producing 95 per cent, of the eggs exported. T think that poultry farmers looking to the future to produce an article that will be wanted will have to introduce the .Orpington, the Light Sussex, and the Rhode Tsland Red, and by scientific cross-bred breeding as our farmers do with their sheep, they will find _ that half-breeds, as between the Mediterranean and the Asiatic, will give them a larger egg, a better shelled egg, an egg with more colour, and an egg that will be more sought after by the consumer. “ Further, I have been requested to make inquiries in regard to the possibilities of shipping poultry to the London market, and I believe that there is a possibility, provided we breed the right class of birds, that is the halfbreed, an early matured bird, and one that we can ship to the London market at from five to six months old, we will find that we have a market for this class of bird in England. I have had some experience of this, dating back from thirty-five to forty years ago, when the late Mr W. J. Tonkin and myself were in partnership as poultry breeders, and shipped home a number of poultry to the London market. The crosses used in Those days were the .Indian Game, Orpingtons, Langsban, and Dorking crosses. Egg production was not sought after, and to-day L really believe that there are great possibilities for the general purpose fowl, that is a good half-breed as between the Mediterranean and the Asiatic. “ Moreover, I am greatly interested in horticulture. 1 have always been importing plants from all over the world, and my object is to visit some of the large plant farms and make a selection of plants, etc., which I believe will find a welcome home in New Zealand. I understand that in Cornwall there have been quite a number of recent introductions from the Tibetian mountains, Afghanistan, and Europe, and as these do remarkably well in Cornwall t.believe there is an opening in Now Zealand for rare plants that are likely to flourish and add to the beauty of the garden generally.’'