[From Otago Daily Times ] THE INTERCOLONIAL FRUIT CONFERENCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2203, 21 May 1896, Page 3

[From Otago Daily Times ] THE INTERCOLONIAL FRUIT CONFERENCE.

It is only natural to expect that considerable tangible benefit will ensue from the Intercolonial Fruit Conference ■which has just been held at Wellington. We should judge that the benefit will be chiefly on the side of New Zealand, since one of the things made' most evident at the conference was that New Zealand is much behind the other colonies in the culture of fruit. As the Premier pointed out in his welcoming address at the opening of the conference, this backwardness is chiefly due to the configuration of the colony, which causes considerable difficulty in obtaining suitable markets for fruit. But it may be pointed out that the configuration of New Zealand is not without its compensating advantages, since it favours the production of a great number of varieties. The sub-tropical climate of Auckland and the peninsula to the north of it is suitable for the production of any fruit that can be grown in Australia, except, perhaps, in the far north of the latter continent, and in these southern parts of New Zealand the hardier fruits can be grown to a degree of excellence not possible in any other part of Australasia, not excepting even Tasmania, which is renowned for the excellence of its small fruits. In New Zealand ye see illustrated to perfection the physical law that gives to the temperate zones the products most useful to man. New Zealanders' pride in the suitability of their soil and climate for the production of things useful must, however, be tempered "with regret that these advantages have not' been fully utilised, more especially in regard to the culture of fruit, ■whicK is almost universally^ regarded as a luxury instead o£ being, as it

ought to be, an article of every day \ dietary use. The common habit is to | undervalue the use of fruit as a food. * Yet authority and experience prove that it might be substituted with benefit , * for many things now considered indis- £ pensable, and the chief among these is c meat, of which colonists , eat far too * much. There are labourers in the \ Levant whose food is only a few i • raisins, and yet they walk off with ( leads that would prostrate an English 3 coalheaver. The Arabs are a hardy, ' brave, and on the whole a virtuous s race, and they subsist largely on dates. Fruit enters largely into the dietary of ! the European nations that dwell on the j ■ shores of the Mediterranean, and in J \ the East the people eat comparatively ij little meat. They undoubtedly benefit J by this abstention, both in health and ' pocket, while the eating of meat in the , colonies amounts almost to a vice. Although many of the papers read at ; the conference were purely technical, j ; there were others more general in their j . bearing, and among them we should class those which dealt with methods of j culture and handling in the other colo- , nies. We find one qualified critic — Mr Lo'eie, of Dunedin — admitting that New Zealand fruit is not put upon the market in the same perfect state as in Tasmania. And we also find one of the judgea at the fruit show, where it might hare been supposed that nothing but the very best would have been put forward, asserting that the fruit was badly staged, and some of the apples there should not have been allowed upon the table. If such a dictum is possible in connection with an exhibition promoted under the auspices of the leading experts it augurs a very low standard of excellence in this colony. It is intended, we believe, to have the proceedings of the conference fully reported and circulated, and the result should be the dissemination of much-needed information on this matter. There seems to have been considerable difficulty in ..arriving at a satisfactory standard of cases for packing. Each district appears to have its own size for cases, and no doubt uniformity is desirable for purposes of interchange, but this we should think is hardly a matter for legislation. A much more important matter is that concerning the use of second-hand casas. This practice was unreservedly condemned. A paper on the suppression of orchard ' pests was read by Mr A. A. Smith, of Ashburton, and during the discussion upon it Mr Kibe, the New Zealand Government biologist, mentioned that a Bill was being prepared to deal with the transit of fruit. The nature of the multitudinous diseases that affect fruit is becoming better understood almost daily, and the fear of propagating disease is conveniently made a pretext for drastic laws restricting the importation , of fruit and fruit trees. If the restric- \ tion of importation promotes production, as its advocates allege, the position of New Zealand fruit-growers ought to be an enviable one. It seems , to be desired that the law for the suppression of fruit pests should be made more severe. The Bill to which Mr Kirk alluded will be on the lines of compelling owners of orchards to use preventive measures, and this is not any more objectionable than a law providing for the sanitation of dwellings. It is a well-recognised principle that no one shall be permitted to be lax and indifferent when laxity or indifference tends to the common hurt. Unfortunately, there seems considerable diversity of

'opinion about the proper remedies for insect pests. One representative said he had used 50 different remedies for the codlin moth, and had found nothing equal to Paris green ; but there appeared almost entire unanimity of opinion that spraying with some material was the most efficacious way of dealing with insects or fungi. The New Zealand members of the conference unanimously decided to recommend the Government to make the cleansing of orchards compulsory, and they had the sympathy of the other members, although a natural delicacy prevented them from voting. Beyond the reading of three papers on the subject, and that on the same evening, the conference devoted surprisingly little attention to the subject of vine culture. In face of repeated proof that grapes can be successfully grown in many parts of the colony, it is matter for regret that the pursuit has j not been more largely prosecuted, i There is an undoubtedly good market • for colonial wine, and its general , use as a beverage of low alchoI holic strength would be a public 1 benefit. In wine-producing countries there is little- drunkenness. This is not achieved by legislative enactment, but by the development of a wholesome public habit. The wineproducing industry has already attained large proportions in Australia, and it will before long stand second to none of the sources of wealth. There is no reason why New Zealand should lag, and probably the only reason for doing so is want of information. The reader" of one of the papers contended that vines and cuttings should be admitted to the colony if shown to be free from diseases, instead of being indiscriminately excluded as at present, and there seems to be reason in the contention. Considerable attention has been turned of late years to the question of preserving fruit by evaporation. It is now a regular industry in Australia, and it will be remembered that considerable interest was evoked recently in Central Otago by some practical lessons given by the Government expert. It was therefore natural that the subject should receive some attention at the conference. One of the experts predicted a great future for fruit drying in this colony. But those who have tried it so far were not so sanguine, and a resolution absolutely condemnatory of it being held out as ' an incentive to settlement was proposed. But as this opened up a quasi political question, the conference wisely declined to deal with it.

The Government, through the Department of Agriculture, is doing a great deal for the fruit industry. It is justified in assisting it to the same extent that it helps other industries. The dissemination of information is of present and prospective. value. There could hardly be a more worthy subject for assistance than fruit culture, one of the most ancient and most laudable of pursuits. We have in New Zealand a mild climate and a genial soil, and though the industry is backward still, it will yet take a leading place. The fruit-growers themselves are learning the value of combination. By judicious combination the orchardists of the famous Teviot district now gend out over 400 tons of fruit a year, and receive an adequate return for their labour. This is in spite of about more than 30 miles' distance from the nearest railway, and though the question of railway communication could not be dealt with by the conference, the elicitation of the magnitude of the fruit

production of Teviot ought not to be "without -weight in considering the matter of the Otago Central railway. Teviot is not more favoured than numerous other places within the watershed of the Molyneux, and railway communication to a market would open up a new source of wealth equal to that of a goldfiold.