Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8425, 25 January 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1890 BETTER THAN KLONDYKE. Califdrmaxs arc beginning to find that they have within the boundaries of their State&omethingbettcrthan Klondyke. The news has been published that a small section of the State, some six or seven square miles in extent, in the vicinity of Oravillc, has received during a few days in December the enormous sum of one quarter of a million dollars for its orange crop of ISOS, and the picking was then not over. Only a few years previously the 'lands upon which these oranges were grown were covered with scrub or so barren that they ■uould not support a rabbit. They were not valued at two dollars an acre, and the men who first began their development were laughed at for fools. The land, however, was irrigated, and oranges grew and (lout ishtd, with the result stated. Not only oranges, but olives (for which there is a demand vastly in excess of the supply) and walnuts (which bring nine cents a pound) arc also grown in great quantities ; almonds and hops are also produced in abundance ; and as a compauion industry the raising of honey is found moat profitable. All this should make us pautse and think. NewZealand, aud particularly thih corner of it, has a soil and climate unrivalled auywhere, aud^vhat can be grown in California can also be grown here. This colony tends thousands of pounds away annually

for the purchase of canned fruits that should be grown and canned on its own laud. Any New Zealandcr who stands on Auckland wharf nnd watches hundreds of cases of tinned fruit being landed for colonial consumption from the San Francisco mail steamers, cannot but feel ashamed of the lack of enterprise and industry that, permits such a condition of affairs to exist. The Gishorne district, we have been informed by (invcrnment pmnologists, would make im ideal fruitgrowing district It is particularly adapted to the growth nf cilius fruits, and with intelligent cultivation peaches could be giown in piofiihion. When lemons and oranges can he produced here ei|ual if not superior to the best imported fiom Italy, and a few industrious hortiuulturali^ts have shown that the industry is a profitable one, it is surely apparent that there can be no need for foicign importations and that a strong cll'nrt should bo m-idc to go in sy-leniaiicilly for the cultivaiion o! fruit. We have previously urged that this district should receive more attention fiom the Government experts, whoso calls have been like angels'visit", few and far between. The pomologists, by moving amongst the. settlers and giving prai-ticid hint;, and advice, could do much to ewouragu the industry, whilst a few lectures dotting forth the paying possibilities of fruitgrowing, and the' great future before it if systematically pursued, would, -we fuel sure, also bring forth good result's. Hut, above, all, what, is wanted is the opening up of our waste Crown and Native lands, and the introduction of now settlers who will seize the opportunities for making this district the Orchard of New Zealand.