REAY BRIDGE NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18179, 29 August 1933, Page 10

REAY BRIDGE NEWS

(Herald Correspondent.) Mr. P. Everett, Government orchard instructor, gave a demonstration ot pruning pip and stone fruit trees at Mr. William Livingston’s orchard. There was a fair attendance of orchard enthusiasts, and the demonstrator gave a very lucid and interesting lecture, answering questions on various aspects and later pruning a number of trees. The Reay orchard is specially suited for the purpose, being composed of young trees at the stage when pruning for shape is essential. The vexed question of whether apricots should b e pruned or not was settled by Mr. Everett pruning several of these young trees into the orthodox wine-glass shape. As these trees should be bearing in a few years it will be interesting to notice whether the heavy pruning will delay their bearing or not, several of the local residents having met with bad results in pruning older apricots. Mr. and Mrs. Livingston supplied nil present with afternoon tea. Both the Waingake and Reay Bridge cricket clubs have now held meetings and confirmed the recommendation, passed at an earlier meeting of the combined clubs, to form separate clubs with the object of starting a competition amongst the Te Arai and Mangapoiki river teams. With the object of raising funds for the initial expenses, Waingake and Reay Bridge chibs have decided to hold a ball at Waingake, the date being set down for Thursday, September 7. Both clubs will participate equally in the proceeds, and should the weather prove propitious, a record attendance should be assured. The Te Arai and Paparatu clubs are both holding meetings at an early date. The docking of early lambs is in full swing, and most settlers report well over ICO per cent., but state that a high percentage is essential if sheepfarming is to pay its way. The countryside generally is looking exceptionally well, most of the willows are in full leaf, and everything pointing to another favorable season. Reay Bridge may be justly termed the apiary ot Poverty Bay, for in every nook and corner and clump of bush, nature’s first architects have made their abodes, sometimes two or three colonies taking possession of the same tree. In one instance they took up their home in an unused room of a local resident, and had to be forcibly ejected. In another case they built their habitation on the lee side of a dead ngaio tree, with the honeycomb wholly exposed.