The Press. TUESDAY. JANUARY 27, 1914. THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14885, 27 January 1914, Page 6

The Press. TUESDAY. JANUARY 27, 1914. THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

On Saturday wo published an artirlo by our Nelson correspondent in which complaint was made that the Canterbury Fruit-growers' Association had passed a resolution absolutely refusing to support any Government compulsory tax on fruit-growers, although the Association was said to be favourable to the proposal at the recent fruit-growers' conference. From tho statement made by Mr Sisson, its president, as reported in this issue, it is apparent that he, at any rate, was not a consenting party to the proposal. It appears both from the Nelson report and from what the president of tho Canterbury Fruitgrowers' Association says that the proposed tax of 6d per acre on orchards is a rock upon which a scheme of federating the Fniit-growers' Associations of tho Dominion has split. But according to Mr Sisson the various Nelson associations havo themselves been backward in giving practical support to tho scheme which they originated. He says that the Ilawke's Bay and Canterbury Associations were tho only ones to pay up tho levy of 2s 6d per member that was arrreed to at the conference. The idea of providing a special fund to enable the outside fruit markets to bo exploited originated with Mr 11. P. Hudson, president of the Nelson Fruitgrowers' Association, who, as clxairman for many years of the Ceylon Teaplanters' Association, had practical experience of what had been accomplished by that association in building up a market in the world for their tea. This was done by providing a fund which enabled them to send an agent to the Western countries to push tho sale of their tea. Whether the conditions to be dealt with here are identical with those in Ceylon we are not prepared to say. The first proposal that came from Nelson was that a fund to enable the markets for fruit to be exploited was a tax of Jd upon each case of fruit exported. Why this was changed to a proposal to put a tax of 6d per acre upon orchards we do not know. The Prime Minister has stated that ho will not do anything in the matter until all the frnit-growors , associations are unanimous. But even then there will be the question whether tho associations are fully representative of the owners of orchards. There are a great many fruit-growers who are only interested in the local markets, many of them growing fruit not suitable for export, and a proposal to put a tax upon them would cause strong opposition. The fairest tax, if 6uch a means of raising funds to assist the fruit oxport industry is necessary, would bo upon the exported produce; then those who were directly benefited would be "the ones to pay. An alternative is that the Government shall subsidise the first efforts to open new markets for different kinds of fruit. That some sort of combination among fruit-growers is necessary in their own interests is obvious. It was stated by our correspondent that in a few years the Nelson district alone will be providing as many apples as the whole of Tasmania at tho present time- There is no' doubt that appleplanting has been undertaken on a very large scale, and if the land proves to be as well suited to apple-growing as the vendors say it is, and other circumstances prove equally favourable, the estimate quoted will probably not be very far from the mark. If such a large quantity of fruit is to be gathered and marketed at a maximum of profit to the growers, they certainly ought to go in for co-operation both for picking the fruit and selling it to tho best advantage. The best plan would be to form a strong association in each fruit-growing centre, and when these are working successfully it will be easy to arrange for a federation To protect their joint interests. It is premature, to say the least of it, to attempt to levy a tax on every orchard in the country, and it would be a mistake to expect the Government to take charge of the industry. All that a Government can do in such a case is to help those who are ready to help themselves.