FRUIT EXPORT GROWTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 933, 28 March 1930, Page 11

FRUIT EXPORT GROWTH

GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR RETIRING GREAT VALUE OF SERVICE After 30 years of vigilant and successful efforts in protecting the fruit industry of the Dominion from the possibility of attack by foreign fruit pests. entering through Auckland, Mr. George Harnett, Government inspector of fruit, retires on March 31. Auckland imports and exports more fruit than all the other ports of New Zealand, and the progress of the fruit and the produce Industry centred on immunity from invasion by pests. Virtually this has been in Mr. Harnett’s hands, for he has carried out the work of inspection alone over his long period of service. It has taken on an average 13 hours a day and. for many

rears, when boats arrived on Sundays rom the Pacific Islands, the work was seven days a, week. Mr. Harnett has 32 years and three nonths of public service. The first two rears were spent with the livestock livision of the Department of Agriculture. Ho succeeded Coptain Broun, icnsidered then the finest entomologist in Australasia, in the duties of port ffiicial. He was born in Auckland, his ather having owned the land now occupied by George Court, Ltd., Karaigahape Road. For that area he ;ossed a brass button with a fellow nigrant.

The imports of fruit into Auckland average 500,000 packages yearly. It ! was 15,000 30 years ago. Fruit export j dates back about 18 years, the volume having jumped from 12,000 to 65,000 ! packages. Fruit fly, forms of scale, and J fungoid growths have to be guarded j against. Even the most appetising orange may harbour hundreds of fly larvae. Codlin moth was brought here through carelessness. Mr. Harnett has a museum of fruit pests. One curious • specimen is a rhinoceros beetle which was found marching down Central Wharf. FOUNDATION OF TRADE Mr. Harnett helped to lay the foundation of the export and import trade inspection policy and has seen the once bitterly opposed policy of the Agricultural Department vindicated. “It was a heart-'breaking job,” remarked Mr. Harnett. “When I came to Auckland there was no export trade; and three of us managed the wharves for imports, and the whole of the city and and suburbs for orchard inspection. We had a list of every place with a fruit tree and tho variety of the trees and the nature of any diseases noticed. I had to explain to farmers how we we:*» trying to improve the fruit industry. The orchards were often in shocking condition. When we had reported we had to return to tree if our instructions were being carried out. “In between times i Had to rush back to the wharves to handle shipments. At that 1 time we would often have 1,500 cases of Island fruit to fumigate. I had to help to store it, to keep track of the consignments and to deliver them. If we condemned fruit, it was not dumped in the harbour. At first I had to burn it on reclaimed land where Victoria Park is now. The burning had to be carried out at night. Boys used to strive to. get the fruit, but the risk of spreading fly was too big to yield. POOR FACILITIES

“After years of this method we made arrangements with a foundry to burn condemned fruit in the blast furnaces. The feeding platform of a furnace is about 20ft high. I had to carry all the fruit up to the platform, up a narrow set pf almost vertical steps and feed it into the flames. At times, 1,000 cases would have to be destroyed. Later, arrangements were made with the City Council to use the destructor plant. We had to improvise fumigating’ sheds, too.” Efficiency at Auckland led to the department transferring Mr. Harnett to Wellington to operate the orchard department. There were apple trees eighty years old which had not been pruned. In nine months 21,000 trees were destroyed. At the request of Auckland merchants, Mr. Harnett returned here. DRIVING THE GROWERS “'When the export trade began to develop about twenty years ago we had to make the fruitgrowers help themselves,” said IVIr. Harnett. “They foretold ruin. “From time to time the countries importing produce have hardened their import regulations. That has required more stringent action here. When one sees the superb way in which fruit is sent here by American exporters, it reflects on the slipshod way in which our fruit used to be and, in some cases, still is, exporetd. A forty-year fight in butter and cheese grading has educated dairy farmers and the department is steadily educating fruit and produce farmers. “Grading at Auckland counts for more with merchants as it has been more strict. Even when graders in the South Island have passed potatoes; they may be condenmed on arrival at Auckland for export. As many as 5,000 bags in one shipment have been so handled- Grading potatoes is an instance of how the public idea of a civil servants’ work may not be correct. Potatoes arrive in big lots and the grader has to handle these himself. | Fruit .grading is not so strenuous. The I shippers have to supply labour for • opening the cases.” Mr. Harnett is certain that Auckland, | with correct control, can build up a ! great export trade in fruit and proI duce.