H—26a
30
The potato-crop in the Pahiatua district is a failure in nearly every instance. Under general conditions, where the grower should have had, say, a crop of 20 tons, the general average will be about 2 tons. The crops of the Natives here are absolutely ruined, and they will not get the seed back, as not one took the trouble to keep the crops clean. In the Masterton district the potatoes are very few, except at Te Whiti. Most of the crops are rotten with blight, especially the late ones. Hutt. In this county potatoes are not grown very largely by the Maori, arid what crops they had have all, with one or two exceptions, perished from the blight. One sub-enumerator says, " The small crops of potatoes grown by the Natives are completely destroyed by the blight, and are not worth the trouble of digging —as a matter of fact, they are only fossicking here and there under any likely-looking stalk." The Maoris, who are close observers, soon found out, the result of bitter experience, that the dark-skinned potatoes such as the Derwent, &c, were more liable to be attacked than the white- or red-skinned varieties; all agree that the Up to Date gave the best results, the next in order being the Early Rose, the Beauty of Hebron, and a white-skinned potato with a pinkish eye, the name of which they did not know, which however was not a good keeper. Other potatoes such as the _E1 Dorado, the Northern Star, the Federal, and the Princess Victoria, they have had no opportunity of testing. I have come to the conclusion, from the information that I have received, that it is almost hopeless to expect the Maori to spray effectively. Marlborough and Nelson. Takaka County. —The potato-blight has been experienced in this county for the last two seasons, but it has not been of a severe type. The Maoris use means to check its ravages, and have this season been rewarded by a payable crop. They had sold, and will sell, some tons of potatoes, in addition to keeping a supply for consumption and for seed. Waimea County. —The potato-blight has not made its appearance here. Potato-blight is almost unknown at Motueka, and none of the Native crops have been affected by it. Canterbury. There is not a very large quantity of potatoes cultivated in this Island by the Maoris, but 1 gather that the blight is very prevalent and destructive in many parts. My sub-enumerators report that traces are to be found in every county in which inquiries were made, and in some of them the crops have been utterly destroyed. Seed has been very dear, and many Maoris have expressed themselves as feeling hopeless over cultivating potatoes at all. There has so far been no sign of the blight on Stewart Island.