BIG BRITISH FRUIT FAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1930, Page 15

BIG BRITISH FRUIT FAIR

DISPLAYS BY DOMINION

ADVERTISEMENT AT LEICESTER.

NEW ZEALAND STAND'S SUCCESS.

(From a Special Correspondent.) New Zealand apples were given away in large quantities to Leicester folk who visited the tenth Imperial Fruit Show, held with the aid of the Empire Marketing. Board at this big Midland city, centre of Great Britain’s boot and shoe industry, last week. Spme 60,000 square feet of fruit, gathered, from the Empire’s orchards in districts as far apart as Nelson and British Columbia, South-Ebstern England and West Australia, was displayed to the public. This show was the biggest yet held. Apples picked a few days before from orchards' in Kent jostled their cousins gathered on the other side of the wOtld, in New. -Zealand, eight months ago, or morb,and kept in cold storage .since the spring. The fair was a romance of the wealth and variety of the Empire. FREE FRUIT FOR ALL. < Free fruit for all whs one of the attractions of the show. In exchange for a ticket, issued at the door, every visitor could claim a free sample of fruit from t-he Empire Marketing. Board’s stand. Oysr 94, per cent, of the visitors, I was told, asked for their samples, ami many of these were given New Zealand applbs, which thus penetrated into' new homes. Honey was also displayed'prominently, and the “Imperial Bee” figure, now well-knopui at shows, waggled his eyebrows persuasively at Leicester housewives., They responded nobly, and on the Saturday following the opening about 800 sixpenny samples were sold. BRANDED BY THE SUN. Apples branded by the sun were a centre of attraction on . the British . Columbian stand. A stencil had been fixed to eich apple while it was ripening,’ so. that the red cheeks bore indelible pictures of small animals, lions, maple leaves, etc. Several had slogans, such as “Buy Empire ffuit from 8.C.,” and one hid a frieze of cows walking all round it. ? Cox’s Orange Pippins proved the most popular variety with the public. “Lasi year growers were getting 255. a box for British Columbian Cent's and 158. for other varieties,” I was tpld by .an expert, “and this year the corresponding ■prices are 16s. and 125., still leaving a premium of 6s. Growers can always mik6 a handsome profit out of good Cox’s.” PALACE OF BEAUTY. A of Beauty was among the lighter of the fajr-Leight beautiful damsels posed as the cflijtral features of tableaux representing sqph subjects as “Eat More. Fruit,” a South African citrus co-operative and an Austfalian port. O.ne tableau . featured a bride with the Slogan,-.'“Wedded to Sweetness”; next door was. an amateur Bacchante standing , by 'a .fountain of wine which never dried. The.girls: maintained , rather, uncomfortable position* for hours on end, and a £'6o ballpt was arranged on . their popularity. . . I ' About £.1500 was given, away ,ih prizes in the fruit competitions,. in'whjCh the United Kingdom was, remarkably successful. The, first threee prizes ,'in the r dessert open . championship' .were won by home-grown Worcester Pearmains and Cox’s Orang© Pippins. Over 3500 packages of fruit—apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit, etc € —Were' entered for the various, classees. There,, must have been between two ahd three million apples present.

CANNED FRUIT SUCCESS. Home exhibits, too, dominated the stray canned fruit sections. The British canning industry , has made remarkable progress in the last few years.,-One big firm, which only started five years ago, has raised its output to over three million tins, and hp-s never been able to i turn out enough to fill its orders, al- ' though last year it doubled its output. For the first time British. canning, plant was strongly displayed, and orders were booked from foreign as well as from Empire .firms.. .< . , , The organisers hope to beat last year’s record for’ attendance of 90,000’ at Birmingham. Among the visitors tjiis year are 3000 > doctors. All the school. children of Leicester are to visit the show and to receive fruit samples. They take particular interest in the Empire. Marketing Board’s automatic daylight cinema, which keeps lip a continuous performance of short films showing all the stages of Empire industries, such .as fruit growing, and coffee planting, from the seedling to the larder.