POTATO DISEASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 24

POTATO DISEASE.

MELBOURNE, August 10. | L'nder the Victorian Act three -weeks' j notico mu^t be given before Tasmanian pol-itoe, can be prohibited. Notice will br- i- -v c d immod iat ely August 11. The Government Poraologist reports the discovery of Irish blight amongst the potatoes in the Fish Creek district, in Gippsland. August 13. Large shipments of Tasmanian potatoes are pourina in. against the contingency of prohibition being proclaimed. August 16. A rigid inspection of Tasmanian potatoes is taking place. One thousand bags were condemned, but a large number were admitted. It is not intended to issue a total prohibition order The Government Vegetable Pathologist considers that NewSouth Wales acted hastily.

SYDNEY, August 10. The price of potatoes has been advanced another 10s per ton. Importers, contend that the proposed prohibition is too late so far as preventing the spread of the disease ;s; s concerned. Already, hundreds of tons of Tasmanian potatoes, hare been planted in. this State, and the. planting reason for them is praoticaMy/ over.

August 11 I The Minister of Agriculture has de— ' clined to entertain a request made by a deputation of wholesale produce dealers, not to enforce the total prohibition of the importation of Tasmanian potatoes. The deputation urged that stringent inspection would meet the case, and contended that many of the condemned potatoes were suffering from other dieeases, and not from Irish blight.

The Minister declared that he wasdetermined to adopt measures, no matter how drastic, to protect the growers of' the State. He said he was also considering the question, of the prohibition of ihv importation of other root crops grown in diseased fields.

August 13.

Two members of the Xasmanian Parh'a* m«nt interviewed the Minister of Agriculture to-day with a view to inducing him to withhold the prohibition of Tasmanian potatoes. Subsequently a proclamation was issued prohibiting the importation of Tasmanian and Queensland' potatoes. A conference of State Ministers of Agriculture Mill be held in Melbourne next week whereat the question of potato disease and the prohibition question wilf be discussed.

The statement has been made that potatoes infected with blight hare reached' Sydney and the Western districts. PERTH, August 10.

Famine prices are predicted for pota-*-toe.<=, as 75 per cent, of those used here come from Tasmania.

HOBARI, August 10

It is stated that £150,000 -worth of potatoes are held up as a result of theaction of Ne South Wales.