FRUITGROWERS’ ASSOCIATION

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15557, 6 March 1911, Page 4

FRUITGROWERS’ ASSOCIATION

A meeting of the Canterbury Fruitgrowers' Association was Held on Saturday evening, Mr F. Sisson presiding. There was a very largo attendance. The chairman referred to the charges made by the Railway Department for tho carriage of fruit eases. Until recently, he said, tho Department had carried cases from the mills to the fruitgrowers free, but the Minister of Railways, the Hon J. A. Millar, owing to the action of the Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers' Association, had introduced regulations providing that the cases would he carried free only from mills within a hundred miles of the district they were intended for. Any distance over a hundred miles had to be paid for. Unhappily there wore no mills in Canterbury, and the nearest was in Southland, 393 miles away, so that Canterbury growers had to pay freight for 293 miles. Thoro wero mills within fifty miles of the Hawke's Bay growers, so that the regulations did not affect them. He thought that the Minister, when he had framed the regulations, had been under the impression that there were mills within a hundred miles of each district. it tho position of tho Canterbury growers were placed before the Minister it was certain he would adjust, tho matter. Mr T. Wray said that now the cost of the cases would he 10Jd each, and the only tiling for the growers to do was U> charge for them, just as the farmers charged for sacks. A deputation was appointed to place tho matter before tho Minister of Railways at the earliest opportunity. After a lengthy discussion about the merits of various oils for spraying, Mr W. J. Courtier delivered an address gi\ ing his experiences during the past

season, and dealing with, methods of spraying and of fighting fruit pests. At tho conclusion of his address he wait warmly thanked.