NELSON NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 5

NELSON NEWS

FIREBLIGHT PEST

SIR JAMES PARR'S VISIT

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

NELSON, 3rd February. ■ Following the widespread appearance o£ fireblight in Marlborough, extending from the Wairau orchards to Spring Creek, the imminence of the menace is now moie seriously felt in Nelson. During the past nine months the work of trimming the larger hedges in the district has been proceeding, but slowly, and the AVaimea Fireblight Committee is now making efforts to expedite the work. The suggestion has been made that the fireblight prevention levy at present voluntarily paid by orchardists should be increased to allow extra funds to be spent in cutting work.

Representations are to be made to the Minister of Agriculture for additional labour, and application has been made to the local Unemployment Committee to see if it can arrange for labour. In Marlborough arrangements are being made to use unemployed labour in trimming and eradicating hawthorn hedges, and an assurance has been given that the district will not be declared a fireblight area until June, after which every owner will be responsible for his own hedges. At present every effort is being made to check the spread o£ the disease.

Sir James Parr last evening addressed a largely attended meeting on Empire trade.

Before dealing with the main subject of his. address, he .recallpd that it was 40 years since lie first visited Nelson, and eight -years since he ■ was last here. He was a youth. o£ 18 or 19 when he first came to the district, and realised the beauty o£ Nelson and the hospitality of its,people. He had been agreeably surprised at what he had seen of the growth and development of the district. "We are all up to the neck in the slump," he continued, "but I am inclined to the view that you have so many irons in the fire and so many varied resources that you are not feeling -it nearly so hard as other parts of New Zealand. I saw tobacco which amazed me-'-a farm of nine acres made a gross profit of £ 1700. These things are not known "outside. I saw your orchards in splendid condition. I went through Mapua, and although we have orchards in the North they are nothing compared with the extent of yours. And then at tha Takaka Show I saw what an excellent dairying district you have. So that with your tobacco, fruit, dairying products, and hops "you have got resources here which will pull you through more quickly than probably any other part of New Zealand."

Sir James went on to say that NelBon was a charming place. The old trees and the gardens, the hedges, and the freshness of things yent to make one of the prettiest pictures "he had ever seen in all his travels. Nelson was the place to which we should bring out Anglo-Indians and those from the Old Country wishing to live in retirement} and where their children could enjoy a good, sound education. He had always considered, and considered more than ever now, that Nelson was eminently suitable for that class of retired military and naval people who were looking for a fresh home.