IMPRESSIONS OF A VISITOR.

Motueka Star, Volume IV, Issue 146, 13 January 1903, Page 5

IMPRESSIONS OF A VISITOR.

Mr W. G. Nation, of Levin, whosa remarks on the fruitgrowing industry we quoted in out- last issue, writes of Riwaka as follows ' Nestling under the hills and not far from the north-western shore of Blind Bay, and twenty miles across this bay from the city of Nelson, is a pretty village called Riwaka, which English tourists say is an excellent representation of some of the villages of Old England. The roadsides are bordered by hawthorn hedges and ornamented by trees -- some of the trees being of large proportions, having been planted in the early days of the settlement- On

every hand are gardens, just now rich in colour, orchards weighted with all varieties of fruit, and many hop plantations. The soil and the shelter of the western hills are most favourable to fruit growing, and one soon discovers that small fruits are being extensively cultivated.

I Years ago Riwaka and the adjoining \ township of Motueka were noted for hop-growing, but 1 noticed that this industry was on the wane, much of the land once devoted to it being now occupied by fruit trees. Whether the advance of prohibition will continue remains to be proved, but the result of the last local option poll has made hopgrowers put on their considering caps, and with them the question is whether they had better not take old father Time by the forelock and grow fruit instead of hops. If hotels are to be closed it is no use growing hops. What a place Riwaka is for feathered songsters. Here we received Christinas greetings from thrushes, blackbirds goldfinches, tuis, yellow-hammers, chaffinches, starlings, and sparrows. I was staying at the residence of Mr Thos. Pattie, and the trees around his pleasant home were alive with birds The weather was delightful, and fiom daylight to dark the air was filled with wild harmony. I expressed my delight at their music, but the countenance of my host took on an expression akin solemnity as he remarked, Y.es, its very nice—but if they would stick to warbling we would be better pleased They take too much liberty with the fruit/' No doubt he spoke feelingly as well as trulv *y ßeferring to the establishment of the Motueka Fruitgrowers' Co-opera-tive Society and its promoters, the writer m question says :—All praise to the men who have striven to lift the districts around them out of the lifeless condition of the past; who have established an association for mutual protection, and introduced an eia ot prosperity. With careful management they will make their country side a wealthy one. What the dairy industry has been to settlers in other parts the fruit industry will be here, now that there is combination. There are a few miserable souls who prefer the >ld pettifogging way 0 f doi business and shun the company, but these can be left in obscurity and admired as fossils. May the Motueka Fjuit Company have a long and prosperous . career.