OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Feilding Star, Volume V, Issue 1482, 3 May 1911, Page 4

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

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RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. By R. J. EAMES. No. 28. NELSON: A PROVINCE ARRIVING.

SOME GENERAL FEATURES. Upon saying good-oye to Wellington, the traveller has as a last impression hills that burn brown and yellow in the summer sun; and that is again the impression when the chief town of the Nelson land district is approached. Not only behind Nelson, but throughout the whole land district the country is broken by rugged hills and mountain peaks, by gorges and ravines. But if one takes the road for it from Nelson cto Takaka, in 'the north, and down to Totara Flat in the South, there are disclosed fertile hills, rich hillsides, valleys and flats destined at no very distant date to support in the aggregate -fen times their present population. When one considers the fact that the seventeen-mile-long Waimea Plain, from Nelson to Wakefield,. is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, settled locality in the Dominion, surprise is occasioned that so much of the back country should even at this late date be unsettled.

Of course, (the fact that the province is, or was, almost entirely a forest country explains to some extent the lack of and the difficulties which beset pioneering enterprise. Even now, of the three millions of acres of Crown lands remaining, about itwo and a half million acres are still under forest and scrub. It should be noted, however, that something like 80 sawmills, with an annual cutting capacity of 70,000,000 superficial feet, are operating in the land district, and this means that after the forest is cut out the axe of the pioneer will clear the way for the farmers of the future. There is still a lot of Crown land, say 760,000 acres, to be made available for settlement. The area of the district is 7322 square miles, or about 4,685,000 acres. The Hollow has been called Sleepy, but there are signs that the people are opening their eyes more fully to the potentialities of the place.

THE MOST FERTILE AREA. When the early settlers located themselves on the sheltered shores of Tasman Bay, "they selected a piece of country which ihas proved itself to be the' most fertile area in. the Nelson province. From the city of Nelson itself to Riwaka, at the foot of ■the Takaka hills, is 40 miles in length, 1 and if a line be struck from those two points back to Tadmor, 60 miles inland from Nelson, of a itriangle will appear, in which is encompassed the great fruit and hopgrowing country of the South Island. Besides all kinds of fruit, cereals are grown in fair abundance, and dairying has rapidly increased. But even in this area there are miles of country uninhabited, where the gorse, the fern, and the blackberry riot, and hills upon hills covered with manuka scrub, the' fireclearing of which has begun, as the great black surfaces show. In many places, in looking over the ploughed land, which turns like stiff: slate clay, on© is forcibly reminded of the gum lands to the north of Auckland. Motueka (including Riwaka) is perhaps the most prolific part of this most fertile area, for.it has the greatest number of orchards in' "the making, which indicate that the apple output of this territory will increase enormously as the years go by. SUN-KISSED APPLES.

Apples are "in" all the year round, but a visit to this district in summer and antiimn brings to view some glorious of fruit-laden trees. A well-cared-for orchard, with its sun-kissed apples clustering round the fruit-spurs in their appointed place, is a splendid sight. But Nelsoni people are not regarding the apple as a spectacle-producer in the orchard; they have their eyes turned towards the export trade. Lately there ihas "been given to the growth of apples a great impetus, and the satisfactory prospect of developing payable markets in England has resulted in the area under Eve's favourite fruit being greatly extended. Last year a trial shipment of 4500 cases of apples was sent Home, and notwithstanding that the growers, the packers, and the shippers were new to the 'Business the result was so encouraging that this year, in March, 7000 cases were shipped by the Rimutaka. Next year and thereafter the quantities available for export, as the newer orchards come into fuller bearing, will, of course, increase rapidly. As to last year's shipment, the fruit arrived 'at a bad timers-it was when the Empire was mourning the death of the King, and business was arrested. Besides this, the apples were marketed in faulty condition. But a perusal of the price-list goes to show that the price obtained for the Nelson fruit compared very favourably with that which was secured by the district's great rival, Tasmania. This year the export trade has been taken very seriously. An expert in grading and packing has been brought over from Tasmania and in consequence of his tuition it is certain that future shipments will be placed on the London markets as attractively packed as any _of the apples sent from the ofcher side. In export apples solidity is an essential, and the varieties most in favour are Cox's Orange, Jonathan, Monroe's Favoiirite, Stunner Pippin, NewYork Pippin or Cleopatra and Adam's Permain. It is fairly safe to assume that with improved packing and grading and better arrangements for marketing, bigger prices will be obtained by growers; and that will inevitably result in> still larger areas being put under fruit. It is unlikely that the area under stone fruit will be greatly extended. One of the growers who participated in the 1910 shipment, and intends going on with lie game this year, writes —

"I may state that if we could get, say, Id per lb clear for apples sent Home, nothing would pay much better than fruitgrowing. Taking my.apple crop all through, .about £80 an aero would be the return." A penny per lb clear 1 It does not seem much, and if, in consequence of the establishment of a sound export trade, that price can be secured with anything approaching certainty, it will spell piosperity for hundreds of orchardists who are settled and are settling in that part of the Nelson province which is bitten into by Tasman Bay. [Article No. 29 in this series will appear in the Star on Thursday of next week.]