OUR ISLAND FRUIT TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 942, 8 October 1910, Page 8

OUR ISLAND FRUIT TRADE.

RAROTONGA BOOMING ) A WELLINGTONIAN'S OBSERVA- *.*! r t'/TIONS , ' Rarotonga, said Mi C A Griffiths, of Wellington, who returned horn a v visit to the Islands yesterday, is going ahead. The fiuit trade is expanding, and that was duo, Air Gurfhths told a Donimion representative, to there being an inspector there who examines ail fruit before it is passed for shipment The' Union Company will not sign ror fruit—will not accept it aboard the ste.imer—until they have a clean certificate from the inspector "In late years bananas have- always arrived in New Zealand in very bad «ird«r, and Captain Smith, the now Commissioner, is a man who is running the place as jf his whole heart was in ji. He is lenient with the natives Then they come before him the fiist )inie for packing bad fruit, but ;eiy Tevere if they come up a second time, ■- .Vhich is making them very caretul indeed, and bananas could not be"packed better now , "At present Rarotonga is the only Bland which has a fruit inspector, but . Captain Smith is having sheds built on the outer islands, and making the Re eident Agents fruit inspectors "Bananas can 'only be shipped from Rarotonga and Mangaia, and Raro- , tonga is about the only centre from which bananas can be relied on They eannot rely on the oranges grown on the other islands, because the fruit will not carry I do not know whether it is the sod or what is the cause. The. outer islands, however, will not grow carrying bananas, but they aie wonderfully adapteu for orange-gi owing "There is practically no scale or othe- pest in Mangaia, Atui, Aitutaki, or Jlauke, while Rarotonga is badly infested with scale, but that is combatted through there being a fumigator there "Oranges are not cultivated, but grow wild on all the islands. "The labour question is going to bo the question of the Islands The 1 Batnes will not go ml for cultivation Very high prices are ruling just now for bananas on accouni of the destruc tion caused in Fiji by the hurricane there, and the natives have moro money than they knoii what to do with It is hard to get labour to load the steamers "In other seasons you can buy ban anas at from 2s to 3s a case, whoreai to-day you must pay 8s and 9s fob Rarotonga Owing, to the fruit fly depositing the maggot so severely in Fiji and longa, it is impossible for them to ship Consequently the source of supply we used to have thpro is cut away and Rarotonga's and Tahiti's business * is increased "