AUSTRALIAN FRUIT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2094, 21 January 1908, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN FRUIT.

QUESTION OF PROHIBITION

One of the successes with which Mr H. J. Scott, the South Australian Commissioner to the Christchurch Exhibition, returned to the State, was the practical assurance of the Dominion Government that South Australian grapes would be admitted to Now Zealand upon payment of a small duty. The fact that Parliament fixed the duty upeiF grapes at Id per lb led South Australian vignerons to believe that the prohibition of imports of grapes by New Zealand from, their State at any rate, would be removed, also the large majority of the public, who know how prolific South Australian vines are and how luscious are the product, have been buoyed up with the hope that cheap and good grapes would be a feature of our fruit supply. So far, 1 owever, the Government has done inn thing to remove the restrictions < n South Australian or any other imported grapes. T Mr. T. W. Kirk, Government Biologist, when seen by a Wellington lost reporter, said the matter was in the .bands of the Cabinet. When asked what would he done* by fruit inspectors with South Australian grapes if any shipments arrived at New Zealand ports, Mr. Kirk said, “Under the existing regulations, which have not been altered in regard to imports of grapes, the fruit would be promptly destroyed. The ..matter is in the hands of the Cabinet, and I have received no instructions to admit grapes , from South Australia, or '-elsewhere.”

Interviewed by. a representative of the Dun din Star, Sir Joseph Ward stated that regulations were now being framed with a view to the admission of grapes and apples from the Commonwealth, under the -altered tariff of Id per lb imposed last session. Sir Joseph was unable to say whether the regulations would bo altered in tune to permit of the importation of the fruit this season, " nc ‘ l was now fairly under way.