HAWKE'S BAY FRUITGROWERS' ASSOCIATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 49, 21 November 1907, Page 2

HAWKE'S BAY FRUITGROWERS' ASSOCIATION.

THE FRUIT FLY. Our Hastings correspondent writes: —A mooting of tlio Hawkc's Bay Fruitgrowors' Association was hold on Saturday afternoon, Mr. W. H. /Smith presiding. Mr. Albert Moore (tlio delegate representing the Association at the Federal Fruitgrowers' Conference held in tlio Government Buildings, Adelaide, last month) submitted his report. Ho said, oil , making inquiries from tlie Now South Wales and Queensland growers as to whothcr the fruit fly is as bad as stated, they admitted they thought it was in places where it would thrive, and this admission was irom men whose interest it was to make light of the troublo if it were possible, to do so. Home growers bad now gone in for citrus fruits m place of peaches and passion fruit, and in Queensland tlioy grow bananas and pineapples. A Queensland delegate told him (Air. Mooro) that he could not a grow a peacn now. The passion fruit and pine applo was not liable to be infested witn ! tho lly, and

the citrus fruits and bananas pay because a great part of the fruits ripen ill winter when thy fly is not about. Keeping' the Pest in Check. The only methods that are any good for keeping the pest in check are the gathering of all, fruits that are infested and boilin.r them, and placing shallow tins filled with kerosene in' tho orchard. In a country where fruit is so easily grown as in the Parramatta district, near Sydney, t tho infested fruit is not destroyed. Besides tho commercial growers who have tons lying about the ground in n, plentiful season, almost all the private houses have a few trees about, and when tho bad fruit drops from tho trees the grubs are not destroyed. Fancy, ,Mr. -Moore said, the expense of boiling up a ton of diseased oranges. Tho pigs won't eat theni, -ind the growers arc riot sufliciently organised to tako united action lor the. suppression of the pest in their own interest, whilst tho New South Wales Gov' prnmont aro lax in tho matter, and so tho evil spreads. ; New Zealand's Danger. Special reference was made to the district about Sydney bccanse it was from there tliat danger may be expected by New Z.ealimd They had tho Mediterranean fruit fly there, The Queensland fruit fly would not livq in this climate, and it was not the maggots found in bananas or Island oranges that mennco tho Now Zealand fruit grower. Tho New South Wales summer fruit might have maggots of the Mediterranean fruit Hy in it, and tho growors admit that it will perpetuate itself wherever citrus fruits . will grow. It will thrivo for a summer oven where citriu fruits will not grow, but tho growers say it fails to perpetuate itself. On the other hand it is said that the Mediterranean fruit tly has spread North from its old homo as far as the environments of Paris, pud Paris, it is known, has a much colder winter climato than Ilawke's Bay. The States of the Commonwealth wore much more particular in tho examination of imported fruit than New Zealand was. A single maggot in n shipment, and , the orchard of origin was quarantined for twelve months. The Victorian Minister for Agriculture said to a Now South Wales delegato that he ivas not only quarantining orchards in New South Wales, but several in his own Stato of Victoria. A Resolution. As tho result of a Jong discussion it was resolved that tho Minister of Agriculture for the States of Victoria and South Australia be asked to facilitate as far as possible the importation of clean fruit from tho other States, and to romovo as many restrictions , to, tho interstate trade as aro compatible with ' ilre safety of the orchards in the abovo mentioned States, and that tho delegates from New South Wales and Queensland _be appointed a committee to lay their grievances before the Ministers for Agriculture of both States. Tho officer in chargo in South , Australia openly stated that thoy ; were not much afraid of tho Queensland fruit fly, but they wcro vory much alarmed at the Mediterranean fly, and he (Mr. Moore) inferred that a similar view was takon in Victoria. Views of Mr. Kirk. During tho progress of the conference Mi. Kirk said ho thought it not unlikely that Now Zealand would presently ask for a certificate that all imported friut was grown in orchards whero tho fruit fly was not ■known to exist, and if a resolution to that effect (pointing out that tho reference was to tho Mediterranean fly) was passed by the Association it would strengthen tho hands of tl i! Department. It was useless to expect tu keep out bananas and oranges from Tlistncts alt'cotcd with Queensland or Island fruit fly as tho public would not stand it, and in his (tho speaker's) opiuion growers were Hot in clanger from them.