The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 2, 6 March 1866, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1866.

A beanck of commerce has lately sprrtng up, which probably in the course of a few years will become an industry of considerable magnitude. During the past month over 700 cases of fruit, in value about £500, were exported from Nelson — some to Taranaki, some to the southern ports, but the main bulk went to the West Coast. February was not the only month which witnessed this export; during January, large quantities of cherries were shipped to Hokitika and the Grey ; probably during the two next months the quantity of various fruits exported will not be sensibly diminished. Taking, however, the total quantity for the year at four times that which was shipped during last month — a very moderate calculation, this will give a return of £2,000 as the total value of the export of fruit for the year 1866, independent of the quantity shipped in the shape of jam. There can be no doubt but that there will always be a mai'ket for any quantity of fruit we can grow. Doubtless in the course of time, when the population will be more settled, agriculture and many other industries will be domesticated on the West Coast ; the climate there is, however, too bleak for them ever to produce fruit to compete with that grown in the fine, sheltered valleys of Nelson. 1 Neither have any of the other provinces so suitable a climate for the production of fruits as we have. The plains of Canterbury are subject to such strong winds that frequently entire orchards are ruined by them ; Ofcago is too cold to ripen many fruits which arrive at such perfection here ; and even Taranaki, 1 the far-famed garden of New Zealand, is too much exposed to strong westerly .winds to produce fruit in any quantities for exportation ; indeed, the other older settlements of | New Zealand are more likely to become customers to us for the production of our orchards, than competitors to supply the West Coast markets, which will always require very large quantities of those productions. We have such frequent and rapid communication with the chief centres of population in Australia, that any surplus stocks cau readily be disposed of there. We recommend these facts to the attentive consideration of our farming communities, feeling confident that they can put their land to no more profitable use than into plantations of well-selected apple and other trees.