New Zealand Jam

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 13, 11 July 1885, Page 3

New Zealand Jam

— Amongst the various tariff proposals of the Colonial Treasurer, there is one which will meet with universal approval from all cultivators of the soil ,in New Zealand. For some time past a number of sharp-witted Southern gentlemen have been taking ad vantage of the old tariff for the purpose of fostering a so called local industry. A duty was levied upon all jams and jellies imported into the colony, .because these articles contained a certain quantity of sugar, which was a dutypaying article. Orchards are less exten•lce in the South thnn they are in Auckland, yet here there i.< not always a aurplua of green fruit to keep a jam or jelly factory going, a higher price being given for the green fruit by the shopkeepers than a jam manufacturer could afford to pay. To establish a local trade in jam and jelly making, these Southern manufacturers, in the absence of a supply of locally-grown fruit, were in the habit of importing from Tasmania quantities of boiled or stewed stuff under the namo of "fruit pulp." After arrival it was boiled, sugar added, put up in tins, and then placed in the market under the name nf New Zealand preserves. Thus New Zealand might he acquiring a rather undesirable character for the quality of jams and jellies with which the colony waa being credited. This trade, however, ia to be stopped in the simple and practical way of causine this boiled or atewed stuff, called " fruit pulp," to pay the same rate of duty as the properly prepared article. All fruit growers will be glad to learn that the New Zealand preserves will henceforth have to be manufactured from New Zealand grown fruit. Wa have already acquired a good name for the quality of green fruit produced, and when the time comes that our orchards yield sufficient surplus to keep jam factories geing. we believe New Zealand preserves will rank relatively as high as does our green fruit at present. —Auckland Herald.