THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 23

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

SPLENDID PROSPECTS. ' TIJJARU, August 10. The Hon. Thomas Mackenzie, interviewed by a Post reporter to-day, said there was a great future before the New Zealand fruit industry. Great Britain imported £10,000,000 worth of fruit annually, including £2,000.000 worth of apples and £1,500,000 worth of pears. The Agricultural Department had been experimenting with fruit-growing in various parts of the Dominion, with eminently satisfactory results. The app'es produced at the experimental orchards realised a net profit of l|d peT 1b in London, representirm £30 per acre. New Zealand imported £25,000 worth of apples and £35,000 worth of canned fruits annually, ill of which could be grown here. Thus Ihe fruitgrower* had a home market of £60,000 a year to start working on, without going out of the Dominion. Large territories in Auckland Province, reckoned useless, and valued at 5s per acre, wete found on experiment capable of producing excellent fruit, and a family could be supported on 20 acres of this" land. The department "was now planting orchards, with a view to settling families who?e heads had an approved knowledge of fruit culture. Mr Kirk,' of the Biological Department, was leaving Wellington for Tasmania in connection with the potato blight there, and would obtain valuable information about • the fruit industry in Tasmania. !