THE FRUIT FLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13846, 4 September 1908, Page 6

THE FRUIT FLY.

■.. -■ , ■.-.■ . .■■ ■ AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT... ' ' MYSTEBIOUS DOCUMENTS, - , , ~ : MAJOR BROUN'S TESTIMONY, job Broun, Fellow of the Royal Ento- ■ ,' _ ; m? icai Society, and until recently fruit • . inspector at Auckland, made an important statement at a meeting of fruit importers yesterday. : .-.- : In the t course of .his remarks Major ' .',',' : Broad said that all the Departmental reports were headed " fruit fly," which was „ §| , a misleading, term, for they had to deal with 'three separate fruit flies, the Queers- - s land fly ■ ■ (Tephritis tryoni), the Mtediter- -AAr ra ,ne?.D*fly ' (Halterophora eapitata), and a yellow fly (Dacus xanthodes). Th« Queensland fly and the yellow fly were in the Islands,* and although the yellow fly ■ <. had' been raised in great abundance it had T*s never been put in the schedule** of the De- ;ljf| partment. If it was so dangerous and /|;# numerous, why was it not put in the schedule? Simply because he (the speaker) ~ ',- was the first to describe it. Had the chief s%O. of the division happened to discover and ..*'? describe it, it would have been in the echo-, J t dule, and information about it spread broad- \ cast: '(Hear,-'bear.) • The Department's. .:.''£*/■ report omitted to mention the new species,' but attached his (the speaker's) name to - ' ,"i% another.-'- Australian species, thereby, making luna take credit for another man's discovery. Those present knew how long he v, ■had been here and what wide experience ha >» r had and they would understand he knew ' ,' what he was talking about. (Applause.) The Queensland .fly and the yellow fly were ■" the only flies that came here in Island fruit. \ Almost every, cargo of fruit had been inspected by himself for years. In October, '.• V 1906, the h.s. Navua landed one of the, ', ; j 1 worst-infected icargoes of fruit ever received.' -'■ A 0& ! here. He i told. his assistant to collect i some of the maggots, and he (the speaker) J I did th© same. Each , collected between ! ; 400"'.and. 500. : He (Major Broun) reared ~-\\ ,i I the.. flies from - those maggots. In. every .X-';''!s! case the maggots he had collected developed into the Queensland fly. ■ From hie' assist- , ; < -^jitf| ant's box there were developed hundred? of Queensland, flies, and five Mediterranean . ;;.. j flies. That was the first occasion .that ' & "'\ the Mediterranean fly had ever been reared ■■.:. from Island fruit. "Is ; t not possible some of the Austra- : : ~- ■ '■ lian fruit had got mixed with that from .-:"/. which the larvaey»re taken?'* asked one -5 : i,i of those present. .1 Major Broun replied that he could not. say. All he knew was that from his own box only Queensland flies were hatched. Up to the time of his retirement from the . r , 4,„ j service the Mediterranean fly had never >\ again appeared. The next curious part was that from the same cargo of fruit flies infested orchards in Napier and Blenheim;; they apparently needed a colder ohm te. His own opinion was thai ://•' those flies did not come from that cargo at all, bat from some Sydney fruit. (Hear, hear). No clear distinction had hitherto been made, and the result was ' '• that growers of fruit from end to end. of , New Zealand had been terrorised without' . l "■ cause. The really dangerous fly .was the Mediterranean. It would live hero, hut the Queensland fly would not-, and the latter was the fly infesting the. Islands. In order to test the Queensland fly the Govern-' _ -j 1 ment,, went to great expense to erect cages > and put the tests in charge of a pomologist, not an entomologist. About 300 maggots were secured by him (the speaker) ad handed <xer to the pottiblogist, i. . , The ca>ges were not ready, and the ; boxes -- ■ were kept in a. room where there was a ' fire every day, for three weeks. The flies hatched out, and won l then put in l the cages in a sheltered position, and the pomologist was satisfied they woald live -, '',"„ here, and :: he put about. 200 " peaches into ' <'\f\;l the cages for the flies. After the eggS; i were laid the flies were- destroyed, hup not OKe egg ever hatched out—(applnusoj; ■ —although i;. was reported ihufc *'- : expert jjnent was v, complete sy; |.>. Rg (Mn k h ■ --:. ';; >;« Brouri) 'ha~d'>epoTted to ino (ffivemnjciA*-*- ','. that there was a natural enemy of ihef J Queensland fly in Ra.ro tonga., becausi-. <>? the decrease of the presence" of the fly, hut' Mr. Kirk and Mr. Boucher went to ha , ' \i Islands and failed to discover the natural>' '■ ; t enemy. Yet there mutt be one, bec'ause'at jhc time he left tin- &, 'vice the numlmr ' " of infected oranges was not one-hundredth; of :what ft used to be. His report never ;. , , appeared in the Department's publications, '' ■: but an article appeared stating that the Queensland fly bad been bred in Tasmania. He at once'-"telegraphed to the Government that this was wrong for he t had a letter from the Government entomo- [' " ',> Jurist of Tasmania to say thai, 11 Queens-: - land fly had not been bred in Tasuiania,- , but- the Mediterranean fly had. He announced that he had overwhelming proof of the fact that the Queensland .fly would not breed here or in Tar-mania,* but no',' ' mention was made in the Department's lvports, nor was any investigation made. It might nut '!».■• known to importers or to - the. general publio '|' that , the late Mr. Seddon had taken , some steps in/this matter, and IoM him. / -' (the speaker] to prepare two complete sets' of papers dealing with the different fruit ' , flies, to add notes on the pomologist's experiments and to include' a copy, of every telegram • and comrauni-, , :: '" "■- ' cation, whether private or not, that' had passed between Mr. Kirk and hira*ek' , .'„,„ '{th* speaker). One set was to go to Mr. '' ■ •beddon, and one to Ma Ritchie, Secretary . ,' ' of the Department, of.'Agriculture, with a % '* ; - request that it might be delivered to the. " ~•„'; M.nibtar for Agricaltmo, then the Hon. '' 1. Duncan. "Mr. Scddon tjnt his set,*' Major;. Broun went on to sav,"-'biii- I imderstend Mr. Duncan did not. • I have .\\'Ah Mr. Ritchie^,'letter, stating he hiji-ded h» set to. Mr. lurk. I h&uc trie originals of tie h e papere, and I think it right that you «lioml ask for an inquiry into this matter. - pec let all these papers and documents ho '' ,n produced, «d let the public see how mat- ■ , ters stand. Mr. Seddon was to look mii/ 1 : ! fl r J( >; the mutter-when he returned from Aa* ' JkM t.<yi.(. but he died on the,Voy*gt\ Tlt;w re- ■**/ ,'l/'J»(f ■fituations-of-the Government are; not worth the paper they' are' written on, and th«j ;',„[';.* "ut?;; v of New Zealand u.i he easy f'-' ■':■'- m, then- minds." (Applause.)- ''*\' : l^ One gentleman said he had 28 acies of : orchard, and had never felt alarmed. He .'I had always held: that it was quite sufficient i |F t« .i« ro the fruit- inspected here. : , .Major Broun: As Government entomologist, I was. offered £50 a year. 'I hat as on- the understanding that I would not be ■ Bwav from home tor mart, than seven or 10 days m the .moiith, but I hadn't been .i week i ni -;• tpd .before I had to work from •• jroumuf tall night every day. At this' 'ftfl| .time the Kocrolaiy for Agriculture was ne- ; , gotiating with an enlomolotjU from abroad I to pome here to- conch ft certain officer. *3sH|| t\ m h :it lo eupposed that everv officer a , i h the Civil Service has' to pass an examina' V»| "on. Have some of ie fruit inspector* passed? l ! Th. Chairman 'Some haven't. Mr. Graudin: That matter about the twos --»■ •■« «* i .«f,pi^erß : is fli most, important thin/, and the .Government should hold an in' 'As't.uiry into it. ■ ■ Another Importer: Then there is the ' ' , ' • i i !*ra Gevernment nflVu was appoint- ,'fi n J« at £50,. year. I think it is disgraceMr ( a,,,,'.,, Major Broun, as an exjHsrt - , ntc-.,0lo J ,s ! , do you , <lv the ? Msluid flv will not thriven) the country? . lajor -■Brmin : Most tmp}]ll ,ij v it will , i 5° l The Mediterranean flv is the -n»T »• ganger, and they haven't «>t it in the la- i >! tl* 1 lands. - ■', - - .-' • • ' lliiillil .■;'n^i r * J 9 audin Throughout my experience n the firm of Kj on Wit, we have never had a S!g ? mc , n^ot fruit condemned on »c- - »2feJ;' Mediterranean fly. ■' fA P - t Plaice) A\hem did the fruit come from . ■ ■- that we five Mediterranean flies war* supposed to V hatched from. ■ . Maior.BroMH. .1 believe it came from AW -?.ionga. - \ ,|'7 a Mr. *'» r 'l ; Id th. old day,, when ; '; ; ' ■.'■■'' rfiling yeaola Cimkd iho rait ; f<— oJ . i '~ *«e sent out all ov .. r 10 !w . m -„„, .•- yatmiro. and plon K ho.i ;,,, t!llJ land. Thai" '; ' "ait.was infested by jb,. Queensland •fl>,'.' * and veix the J, bis nev.r bred. ■ *' -. g | Major !..«.„ Yon know the ft , Wlfc t' |M|»V, '~U(\l. ,U( \ l ' ~t ook hi m-nrt'iua bananas. V* the D<,,u ;; . , U] ,; -v , vl fiiul (j,, im u ' * j aecayi-.ig f,,,. }• ],; iS ,thinir U- A- fJMWI , with either the. Mediterranean or HC( ,, W . , * i sand fil^ ( .md it ib not prohibited f- H,r, , \yk i I'egnlatioas.