A HOP STORY OF 1883.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1372, 24 February 1912, Page 14

A HOP STORY OF 1883.

Q. HOW A GROWER LOST A FORTUNE. A story is told i:i Motueka of how a hop grower, who has now left the country, was "almost mined in the aftermath of the hop boom of INS 3. There was a hop famine that year all over the world, and prices ran high. Buyers were about early in I'Jie season, and the price gradually increased to Is. Cd„ then 2s then 2s. Gd. per pound. It took a further rise, a penny a time, until it reached high-water mark at 3s. per pound. It had been on this margin for a few days, when a buyer called in on the particular grower referred to, and asked him if ho had sold his crop. "-\"o!" was the answer. "Well, I'll give you 2s. lid. per pound for thecrop," said tho buyer, "and you had better take it, because I do not think tho price will go much higher." The grower went into the next room and cried to Ilia wife upstairs that Mr. Fo-awl-so had offered 2s. lid., and what was he to do. "Hon't sell lor less than :is.," was tho reply. "We're not gong to take any :..«. hi] " This answer was conveyed back to tho buver, but lie stood "pat" on his offer, and'iinally went away without buyin" the hops. A few weeks afterwards the nn-M' bean to fall and fall and fall again until it' was down to a shilling. The erower and his wife determined, howover to hold on till next season in tho hone that then there would be auelher boom time. Next season however, there wis a plethora of hops ail over the world, and the price never went abovo Gd. per poimd. ami gradually dropped to id By this time the two unfortunates had had cnou"h of waiting; they sold at that sum, and as the loads of the man's hops, were carted down the street, he was ironically cheered by the populace. Ilis crop weighed 20 tons. ITad he sold at 2s. lid. ho would have received something like .iG.IOO, instead he sold at Jd., and received a paltry £710- His loss was about ,£SSGO; lie never recovered from it, and finally left the district. The moral is told in Molnekn every hop season, and in all probability tho same story is told in every other' hop-growing centre.