The Fruit Conference.

Manawatu Herald, 7 May 1896, Page 2

The Fruit Conference.

We trnnfc thif=> conference will result io louch benefit to the fruit-growers of the colony. It should do so as our visitors will probably succeed in dusting some of the cobwebs of old notions off those who have been attempting to guide us during the past few yeai'3. One instance stands out as a splendid illnstration of how the good intentions of the Government are marred by the ignorance of their executive officers. The Government decided that a small charge should be made for the carriage of fruit on the railways — one shilling per hundredweight for any distance. The working out of the concession is not so good as it looks, for fruit-growers have been advised, and advised well, to have a uniform siae for apple cases which contain some forty pounds weight. We admit there are other fruits, but the fruit using the greatest quantity of cases is the apple, and thus the concession of the Government affect that fruit the most. Thug with the weight of the case itself, and fruit, each package would run about 451bs and thus the hundred weight works in to no advantage. If you send two bushel cases they equal 901bs and thus coat sixpence each, whereas the propor« tion of price between 1121bs for one shilling and the 9Olbs for one shilling means that the sender of small lots loses the freight on the balance on each consignment. As the Government have urged the use of these bushel cases the least they could have done would have been to have declared a freight at per case, and this would mean fourpence instead of sixpence. The concession we have appreciated but will more so when it is brought within the object of the intention. At present there is more of profession than practise.