The Taihapc Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1915. A PRIMARY INDUSTRY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 110, 12 January 1915, Page 4

The Taihapc Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 1915. A PRIMARY INDUSTRY.

(With which ia incorporated The Taihape Post ';,nd Wairaarino Newa.)

The Fruit-preserving Industry Amendment Act, passed last session, possesses all the possibilities of proving an exceedingly beneficial piece of legislation. In our news columns in yesterday \s issue was publish ,-d a paragraph how a iVimgrower, afim* givinghis land end his time to att■JUtyng his fruit trees, had to sell his fn.Jt at' sixpence per ease; out of that he had to pay fourpenee for the case, freight and auctioneer's commission. In this district we may 'not l)e vei-y much interested ■in fruit culture, except from a consumption point of view, but as it has now been practically demonstrated/that it, is possible to biiild up an immense export trade, and as the Government has, by this measure under consideration, undertaken to lend sums up to nine thousand pounds for the purpose of establishing or extending fruit-packing sheds, cold stores for fruit, fruit-canning works,and other works in connection with the packing, grading, or preservation of,fruit, wc should be doubly interested. First because a successful fruit export will increase the Dominion's.income from a primary industry, and secondly, because public money is being voted to assist it into a paying state. Government has previously wasted public money by doling it, out a hundred pounds or two hundred pounds at a time in a fruitless ef-. fort to establish a market in Great Britain. A penny per pound was given for all apples exported to London, and it is quite fair to say that the whole scheme was a foreordained failure. We have seen that wc cannot supply the New .Zealand market, and that at present we can only imperfectly supply some extraneous markets. Extreme perishability is, of course the deterring factor, and although men who understand the business pointed, this'-out most forcibly to the Government, the reply each year was, another £250 will be! granted as a penny per pound subsidy. No fruitgrower wanted this, I and no frujtfarmer worked harttor to'make .the Government muterstand this than the newly-elected | member for Motueka, Mr R. p. j Hudson, who was then 1 president I of the Motueka Fruitgrowers' Association. Mr Hudson strongly) urged that' fruitfarming con!' never be a success until it v made possible to send fruit to ■ ket when there was a demand fori it. Till now fruitgrower:; have, through its perishablencss. b.,.u

compelled to market much of their produce at osier 1 and this naturally has,..caiist'd.-a glut and prices very O'ften liave" not been sufficient to pay cases, freight and commission. Mr Hudson pointed out that this state of things could never bo altered till cool stores were erected in each fruit centre, so that fruit could bo kept for any reasonable length of timy, and only despatched to a market v'.<i. a bona fide demand existed for it. We are convinced that the Government could, not have passed a more beneficial Act'; it will enable hundreds of thousands of pounds of fruit to, bo marketed each year hat was tyit.Uerto lost; it will enable . he : adjustment of shipments so as to nlwavs catch a good market, and it will enable the five and. ten acre man who joins the body that controls the cool store to always.get profitable returns, something that he could very rarely get under presonr conditions. All other classes of farming that required it had been assisted in accordance with their needs, and itwas becoming a scandal that the produce from'so much land should he left to rot on the ground merely for the want of cool storage facilities, as "was, and is, the case now with fruitfarming. Fruit in New Zeaalnd is dear at any time, even in the 'height of the season,, not because of the operations of the law of supply and demand, which we hear bandied about so much just now in connection with the wheat and flour mar '-ket, nor because there is any shortage in the supply, but because tho.se persons who have acquired a controlling interest in the handling and sale of the fruit to 'retailers, prefer enormous profits on a small, turnover to small profits on a lai*ge turnover. Something is wrong when good fruit is being sacrificed at sixpence for forty-pounds weight of it, while here in Tyih-.pe we cannot buy it at twopence or threepence per single pound. It will be sometime before the extension of the Government's lending power.can be felt, but we assume that money will be lent to the large fruitgrowing associations, who will ereot the stores and will take in the fruit from all their members, and not only ship away, but will supply all parts of New Zealand, wherever there is a demand, and cut out altogether the middle man, as by so doing they not only save a profit, but what is of very much more consequence with an article of so perishable a nature. they save a double handling and at least a day less in transit. The most important, .aspect is, of course, the- possibilities cool storage gives for export, Export is only practicable when suftieiont quantities can be landed that will supply a market. Importers cannot be, bothered with a few hundred oases. If successful ex (sort is to be established we must be prepared to despatch away ten thousand to fifty thousand cases, or even a hundred thousand cases of carefully Graded fruit at n time, and this can only be done when cool stores enable that quantity to be collected together and ••kept in perfect condition until it is shipped. Gool storage was the one thing fruit farmers stood in absolute need of, and the Government will have earned their gratitude for enabling its attainment.