INFECTED GRAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1915, Page 8

INFECTED GRAIN.

JUPOiJTATiOXS TO AI'CKLAXI). By Telegraph,—l'l ess Association. Aiicki.-jiul, Last Night. Nil! absence of any t m»v t -!jmu-iit rcgui lations requiring On' .<■.-( i,m nf nrai.i imported into New Zealand is causing a good deal ol dissatisfaction among produce merchants 1111(1 others in Auck" liiiii! al. pn seni, uv. ii;g Ui the bud ebullition in which several recent shipments :il niai/.e have been landed. About .">Oll sacks ~r Fiji-grown maize which were landed by the Lnion Company's steamer Atna this week arc the principal source ol' complaint. According to a statement made to a Star reporter by an expert this shipment is badly infected with the uugnmois moth, a pest which is rife in lw.il, and which is very likely to infect Now Zealand crops unless something is done to stop its importation. Samples of grain shown to a reporter were full of holes made by the larva of the niotli, which the expert stated was to be seen ill its fully developed state oil the outside of the grain bags as they lay in the Ilarbor Hoard's shed. Complaint has been made regarding shipments of Australian maize recently landed by the lliverina, Makura, and Westralia. Those, it is stated, came with weevils so badlv that consignees would not take the grain into store, while the Itailway .Department refused to convey it in trucks, the weevil being extremely hard to get rid of once they are introduced into a store or any place where food is kept. The result appears to have been thai, the maize was left u the wharf sheds among ail sorts of merchandise for a week or more, during Which time the weevils grew and multiplied, to the serious detriment of other produce stored in the building. Surprise was expressed b\ l the Star's informant that the Harbor Board should have given storage to grain ill such a bad. condition, especially as merchandise of all kinds was kept in the same sheds.