JAPAN'S GIFT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 9

JAPAN'S GIFT

CHERRY TREES FOR AUSTRALIA ' GOVERNMENT'S DILEMMA (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 21st November. The gift of the Japanese Prince, .Takamatsu, of 8000 cherry trees to the .Commonwealth placed the Government in an extraordinary dilemma, which has now been overcome. "When the gift was offered to the Prime Minister (Mr. Scullin) as a tribute to the reception he leceived when he visited Australia with the Japanese training squadron, it, was gratefully accepted by him. Then he was told that the importation of cherry tress froni Japan was strictly prohibited, and for a time it appeared as though an awkward international problem would surround those cherry trees, It seemed that the gift was likely to prove as embarrassing as the white elephant presented by another Eastern potentate. However, difficulties have been overcome, for it has been arranged that the cherry trees shall be placed in quarantine for twelve months before they are permitted to grace the hills surrounding the capital, Canberra, and during that period they will be thoroughly fumigated. This has not satisfied the orchardists, who fear greatly the introduction of what is known as the fire blight, but an assurance has been given that the trees when they are planted out will be quite harmless.

: It has been decreed for some years now that cherry trees may not be imported from any country where the fire blight is known to exist. Fire blight has been a particularly disastrous infliction in tHe United States and Canada, and it is known to exist in Manchuria, China and Japan, where it is supposed to'l have originated. The Commonwealth authorities are particularly anxious to keep the pest out of Australia. It is already in New Zealand, particularly in the North Island, but Australia has not had a visit from the pest so far. And it does not want one. The pest chiefly attacks the hawthorn, as New Zealand knows well, for there was once a campaign there to out down all the hawthorn hedges. Pear trees, apple trees, and other fruit trees have been attacked.

The Superintendent of Horticulture in Victoria said the other day that if the firo blight obtained a hold in Australia it would prove a calamity to the apple and the pear growers. Every possible care to prevent its introduction had been taken. All cultivated trees were liable to attack and were more susceptible that the wild varieties. One danger that might not have been thought of by the Government when accepting the cherry trees is that it affords a precedent'for nurserymen who might wish to introduce prohibited trees and plants. For example, citrus trees are not allowed to be imported from countries where the citrus canker is known to exist. However, the Federal Government authorities have always been ultra careful in such matters, as witness the way in which New Zealand potatoes are kept out of the Commonwealth even when there is something approaching a famine m potatoes here. One would have thought that the authorities would have eased the regulations in this regard at least, but there has been no inclination to relent m the least, and Australians continue to pay an enormous price for Jhia necessity, • - —