Australasian Fruits in London

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 163, 31 July 1886, Page 5

Australasian Fruits in London

Theke' is now no doubt whatever that fruit can bo sent from these colonies to London, and arrive there in perfect-condition. At the Indian and Colonial Exhibition the Victorian Commissioners are doing a service to all Australasian ■> orehardists by endeavouring to Bhow,the British public that they cau keep up a constant supply of fruit for sale in London which has been grown at the other end of the world. Owing to the miserable bungling with regard to the arrangements made for shipping New Zealand fruit for the Exhibition, this colony will show up poorly in the matter of her fruit producing capabilities. The beautiful fruit sent home from here by the Rimutaka was, owing to the want of cold fitoragej landed for the most part in an unpresentable state. It did not require much foresight to predict, as we did, that this would be the result of seuding the fruit home as ordinary cargo. After the urgent invitation to our fruit growers to send some of their best fruit for exhibition, on, the understanding that it would be properly taken care of so as to arrive in good condition, we must say we think the absence of any provision for its safe carriage on board the Rimutaka was a piece of shameful neglect on the part of whoever was responsible. On the general question of the feasibility of landing colonial fruit in England in saleable condition there is, as we have said, no doubt ; but it- still remains to be proved whether there would bo any profit in the trade. A margin too would always have to be left for the possible accidental failure of a shipment. The Australasian writing on the subject, says :—: — Although there have been failures there have also been successes, and these on a scale sufficiently large to serve as iessons of instruction for those who determine to venture on the trade of exporting fruits to England. The total coast of laying clown the fruit at the antipodes in a regular com mereial way must be ascertained before any steps can safely be taken by growers to try that market on an extensive scale. The question at what season of the year the English market can be reached with the best effect is also one of moment, and that perhaps can only be determined by results. If in sending apples and pears it is found that only the long-keeping varieties will realise fairly good prices, there will certainly be a question whether better net results will not be obtainable hero, for, as the winter eeason advances, the prices of good lruit of both classes in our markets materially improve ; it will require very high prices in England to net as good returns for long keeping apples and pears as are realised here nearly every winter after the glut of non keepers has gone by. In looking for extra colonial markets for apples, India should not be forgotten. Satisfactory returns have ere now been experienced from that quarter, and it is certain that if a taste exist there for apples and pears it can be satisfied only by importations, the climate being unsuited for the growth of such fruits. It is hardly necessary to suggest that the prices realised for our fruits at the London Exhibition will not prove a safe guide for growei's. Neither will present experiences reliably indicate whether a demand reny hereafter be experienced for our orchard fruits during May and thenceforward. The fact of forced grapes being forthcoming from the Channel Islands and other countries in which they are being grown in yearly-increasing quantities trom April forward may, or may not, affect the demand for other fruits. Then in May also strawberries from Cornwall and _the Channel Islands begin to come in pretty freely. But possibly neither grapes nor strawberries may satisfy those who are fond of apples or pears, so that the whole business of exporting will for some time to come be tentative.