THE FRUIT FLY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 10

THE FRUIT FLY.

■^ (Feom Our Own Correspondent.)

CHRISTCHURCH, January 29.

News was received here to-day of an outbreak of the fruit fly in the Auckland district. Mr T. W. Kirk (Government Biologist), who is at present in Christchurch, was sought by a Press reporter, and he stated that he had received a telegram stating that" the fruit fly was believed to exist in a garden near Auckland, and that a departmental inspector was investigating the matter. Up to this morning, however, the reoprt had not been confirmed, and Mr Kirk expects to learn definitely tomorrow what the position is. Upon receipt of the telegram Mr Kirk issued instructions that drastic action was to be taken, and that a report should be furnished to him at the earliest possible moment. Mr Kirk, who had no opinion to offer as to whether or not a. recrudescence of the pest had really occurred, stated that Mr Boucher was personally investigating the supposed outbreak. AUCKLAND, January 30. Hitherto the Auckland province has been immune from the fruit fly pest, which has played such havoo in Australia. This week, however, tho discovery was made that the Mediterranean fruit fly had made its appearance at Devonport. It was reported by a Devonport resident that he suspected the maggot of the fruit fly in come nectarines. Immediate investigation followed and confirmed the suspicion that the maggot was that of the fruit fly. The infected area is a small garden at Stanley Point. A small nectarine tree loaded with fruit was found to be infected, the ripe fruit being impregnated with eggs. House to house inspection was at once made by Mr Boucher and his assislants, and except in this one instance it is folt certain, that the orchards in the locality are so far exempt. A strict surveillance is nevertheless being kept right along the water frontage, and all orchards and gardens in the Chelsea, Devonport, Northcote. and Birkenhead districts will be under rigid inspection. The fruit in the orchard in which the present outbreak is located will be taken over by the department. _ The nectarine tree which is so largely infected will be treated in a similar manner to those at Napier, tho fruit being picked as it ripens and destroyed. Every effort will be made to prevent the spread of the pest, and Mr Boucher i 6 hopeful of stamping it out as completely as appears to have been done at Napier. "There is no cause for the lenst alarm," said Mr Boucher to a press representative, "as the garden in which infection has been discovered is almost isolated from tho large residential suburb of Devonport, and there are no orchard? of any extent within a distance of some miles. The few fruit trees in the immediate vicinity may ahow infection, but the isolation of' the locality generally from a fruit-growing standpoint will probably enable the infection to be confined to that particular locality."