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Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 174, 21 July 1909, Page 7

"The outlook for the fruit industry in the North Island must be considered highly satisfactory," declared Mr W. A. Boucher, Government Pomologist, when speaking to an Auckland Star representative. "The industry, from a commercial standpoint, is on a better basis than it has ever been before, and there is not the slightest doubt that this improvement will continue. During the past two or three seasons the returns per acre have been exceedingly satisfactory, and this has had the effect of inducing a considerable extension in planting operations." Many of the commercial growers, Mr Boucher adds, are now regarding the success of the cool storage experiments as having an important bearing on the industry from an export point of view. The samples of fruit held over by the Department in | the freezing chambers from last season, and exhibited at the Auckland, Palmerston, and Waikato winter shows, created a profound impression, and growers are now looking forward to the cold storage system as a means of regulating the market and extending the period during which locallygrown fruit might be sold at an advantage. Many inquiries are being made as to the possibility of establishing an export trade in frozen apples and pears, but until local requirements can be better supplied, the Government Pomologist for the North Island considers it advisable not to set about such an undertaking. The demand on the local market for several seasons has been quite if not more than, equal to the supply, and-until the local consumer can be supplied at more reasonable rates Mr Boucher considers it inadvisable to establish an export trade. The sending Home of small consignments of highly-coloured apples, of good flavour, would, in his opinion, only set up a demand which New Zealand is hardly in a position at present to meet, and. would onlylead to the disappointment of English wholesale importers.