CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 154, 27 June 1878, Page 2

CO RRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir.— A great rii^ny of the public doubt the correctness of Mr James Smith's letter of the 11th instant as to Nelson fruit being cheaper in .Wellington than in Nelson, but at times it ■ is- so, the' ; reason being that : f the Wellington market gets glutted with unripe and inferior fruit sent from N eison. With reference to Mr White's lettei/of the 12th instant he says " I remember some years ago selling fruit at 2d per poundi but since then I have only heard of and Id perponnd being, given." I have been in the fruit trade about six years, and I go through the country 'districts once and twice a week during the fruit season to purchase fruit, and I have never purchased any at the prices mentioned by Mr White. I have shipped during the; last . nine months 3441 cases of fruit, and the' average price given by me, including all kinds of fruits, was 3| per pound- fruits sold by the gallon will average 6lbd. . The letter of ■. " P.W.I. " of the 15th instant is au insult to the exporters of fruit in Nelson, when" he speaks of those exporters who force the growers to take goods in exchange instead of money. I paid during last fruit season- in cash £741 3s 6d for fruit, but fruit growers should assist the dealer as much. as. they canjjb'y taking goods, as the growers cannot do without goods, and they cannot do without exporters of fruit, and the exporters have to take all the risk, and sometimes they ' meet with heavy losses. Will the Jam Factory pay ? I say No it will not at the present price of fruit, but if they go the right way to work, that is, by growing the email kinds of fruits required for a Jam factory, and I believe that fruit will get cheaper by the quantity of trees that have been planted duriug the last two years, therefore, if properly managed I think it will pay in time. I may state that I was offered the management of a jam factory by a merchant in Wellington when he was in Nelson about fourmonths ago,' but when I told him I should have to grow the fruit first he laughed at me saying, " Why you can get fruit here by the ton for a ■ mere song," but when I told him the prices and the scarcity of small fruits such as currants, raspberries, &c, and when we went into figures we found that with the present price of fruit here we could not compete with Tasmania, where the average price of fruit is l£d per pound. The quality of the fruit ,in. Nelson could be greatly improved if growers would attend more to the pruning and manuring of their trees, but, some of them say " O, it don't pay to do that." That is where they make a mistake, for if they attend to their trees they will get good fruit. I once heard a conversation between two fruit growers on the banks of the Paramatta River, New South Wales, G. and W. Said W. : '• Well G. how have you done with your fruit this season?" G. Pretty well, cleared £1500." W. scratched i his head, and said " Why mine only just paid me for picking." The reason was that W. had let his trees run year after year without manure or pruning, while G. expended £600 per year in manure and labor. I am, &c, William Philleps.