THE NEw zealand herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1896.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10125, 7 May 1896, Page 4

THE NEw zealand herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1896.

The conference of fruitgrowers at present in session at Wellington should be an object of the deepest practical interest to the people of New Zealand. This colony is notoriously behind almost all the rest of the colonies in an industry that lias in it the promise of the utmost benefit to the health of the community and of the most lucrative returns to those that engage in it. Yet while we hear the outcry from time to time of the lack of employment for workers, and of spheres of investment for capital, we have within our reach the opportunity of meeting both wants in one of the most interesting occupations to which industry can be applied. Everyone knows that there are difficulties in the way of its development, that there are numbers of people to whom fruitgrowing has been profitless, and that in many parts of the colony every year tons of the best of fruit are left to rot on the ground. This does not furnish the smallest argument against the growing of fruit, or the prospect of profitable returns, but only points to the difficulties that have to be combated, for good fruit lias an unlimited demand awaiting it, if the right steps are only taken to bring fruitgrowers and consumers into contact.

Looking no further away than our local circumstances, we see that fruit does not enter into our dietary to anything like the extent it should, and the extent to which it has become a common article of diet, and almost a necessary of existence, for instance in large part of Canada and the United States. With us fruit is only a treat or a luxury, and few there are who realise that pound for pound it is the most nutritious of all the growths of the earth, and that it is capable rpf supplying the place of a large part of the food which we ordinarily consume. Our tastes have not been cultivated to the use of fruit in ordinary dietary, nor have we learned as a rule the methods by which, in other lands, the people have worked fruit up into ordiuary dishes for the table. Why is this? And how does it come that so little fruit is consumed in New Zealand? It is primarily because fruit is so dear to the consumer, and because the supply is so intermittent. The first of these evils is simply because of bad arrangements on the part of the fruitgrowers themselves, who, while growing good fruit, do not go to the trouble of organising so as to ensure its reaching the consumers at a price that will induce them to take and eat. In truth it brings little enough profit to the growers themselves, but they sit down contentedly or discontentedly aud bear it, instead of putting forth their principal effort to develop the possibilities of the market. Again, it is a feast or a famine. At one time, and for a short time, the supply may be abundant, and then for the greater part of the year good fruit is not to be ha 4 for love or money, It its simply a question of contrivance as to how the fruit should be saved and supplied as required, and at the risk of offending the fruitgrowers, we say that it is their own slipshod arrangements and want of arrangement that prevent them from making profit of their produce. Of course, in the case of producero at a distance from market the difficulty is real, and it is possible that only by desiccation or canning, or other form of

artificial treatment, they can obtain a return for their trouble. But within a c6iipli'6f hours of Auckland there is enough country fitted for the purpose to make apples as common as potatoes, and much more profitable, and perhaps ju&t as largely entering into the ordinary dietary of the community. As it is, it is rarely possible to get a fruit fit fetf eating, except at a price that makes it caviar to the multitude. As a consequence it is only the spare change that goes In fruit, which one of limited means regards as wasteful indulgence, for which he does penance to bis conscience; while the shillings are given as of necessity for the purchase of food stuffs not half so nutritious. If good fruit and in regular supply were procurable by the people at a cheap price, but one that would be remunerative to the producer if he looked after it, the public taste would be cultivated, and, more particularly in a climate like our own, fruit would form a principal ingredient in the food of the people. The delegates to the Conference from the Austraiian colonies were surprised ! at the backwardness of fruit-gvowing lin New Zealand, In some of the sister I colonies the industry has taken rapid strides during the last few years, which is attributable in great part to the commercial depression which had thrown the people back on the land, and taught the necessity of developing the local resources of the country, as it is also owing considerably to the efforts made by the Government generally to ha ve cool chambers for storage provided at reasonable rates in the two great mail carrying lines of steamers trading with England. In Australia generally the local consumption of fruit has been considerably developed by the cheapness induced by the stimulated industry,but the increase of fruitgrowers has been ohielly owing to the prospects of easy transit provided to the English market with the certainty of steady demand, and of the remunerative prices thereby ensured to to those engaging in the enterprise. This it is which gave occasion to the surprise which the delegates felt at the contrast presented in New Zealand. Though our local markets if properly cultivated would provide a demand sufficient for the consumption of all the fruit grown at present in New Zealand, and for some years to come. There can be no doubt thatit is to England and Europe we must look for a market if we are to see fruitgrowing become one of the great staple industries which

it should be in New Zealand. One of the lessons that our fruitgrowers, therefore, should learn from Australia is the necessity for better and more systematic arrangements for transit of fruit both by land and sea, for it is that mainly that has given those colo nies, and particularly Tasmania, the hold which they are obtaining on the English market The great central ports of the Australian colonies present advantages for this purpose which we cannot have without effort in the geographical conditions of New Zealand. But all the greater reason is there why efforts should be put forth to combat this difficulty and 'equalise the ; conditions, so that fruitgrowers may have the prospect of their fruit when grown having access to the English

market. This will be an imperative condition of success if this colony hopes to hold its own in the foreign market. For this industry New Zealand has a special aptitude far exceeding that of any of the other colonies with the single exception of Tasmania. We have seen the attempt made to struggle with climatic disabilities, in the irrigation colonies in Australia, that appear to have collapsed in financial disaster. We require no artificial modification of the seasons in New Zealand. Nature has given us all the requisites ; and it I will be discreditable to the enterprise of the people and of the Government if this colony does not stand in the very foremost place of all fruit-producing countries of the world.