FRUITGROWERS' CONFERENCE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 10, 7 May 1896, Page 2

FRUITGROWERS' CONFERENCE.

Mrcii practical good will no doubt accrue to our fruitgrowers from the discussions of the Conference of Fruitgrowers now being held in Wellington. Fruitgrowing, like many other things, has been a burning question with us ; but strangely enough New Zealanders have made but little progress, and tons of fruit have to be imported to supply local" requirements. We have not done nearly) as well as our neighbours in the sister colonies, where the climatic conditions are not on a par with ours*. From fruit to vegetables is but a step, and in this branch the Chinese have the monopoly, notwithstanding the periodic explosions of alleged anti-chinese leagues. Dealing with the Conferen#e in an Editorial the Evening Post says:—

" We do not know the precise scope of the programme of the Conference, for its business paper has not yet reached us; but from the anti-Chinese consumers' point of view we might suggest that it would be interesting and instructive if it could formulate the precise methods by which the Chinese have monopolised the fruit trade of this city, and how it is they manage to sell better fruit and cheaper than any white competitor. Also, some of its members might give an instructive, if hardly savoury, account of the fertilising agents the Chinese employ in the production of the succulent vegetable products that our housewives buy with such complacency from the bland Mongolian."