The Canned Tomato Industry.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 208, 25 June 1887, Page 4

The Canned Tomato Industry.

There are probably ew regions of the world where the tomato will flourish better than in the North Island of New Zealand, and even in a great portion of the Middle Island the plant thrives very well when prdperly managed Then can anyone say why we do not embark in the canned tomato trade which in America has attained to enormous proportions? Canned tomatoes can be exported to any part of the world, and the market for them, we should say, was practically unlimited. Army and Navy physicians should be in favour of them for the use of armies and ships, as the tomato is well known to have valuable medicinal properties as a blood purifier and regulator of the human internal economy. The putting up of tomatoes for export would, like the manufacture of jams and jellies, be a natural local industry requiring little special knowledge, nor any very expensive machinery. A. few thousand pounds put irito such industries would be far better employed than in promoting the manufacture of beetroot sugar, an industry which has never succeeded in any country without substantial Government assistance. To show the extent of the cannod tomato trade in America we may quote the American Grocer, which tells us that " the pack "of tomatoes in the United Stated, in 1885 was 1,434,006 cases of two d/ozen cans each, as against 2,021,177 cases

in 1884. These figures show a falling off of 587,171 caseß in 1885, as agaiast >a falling of 922,402 cases between the years 1883-4. More glass packI ages than tin cans were put out last year, owing evidently to the distrust caused by the circulation of reports that canned goods are not safe fco eat. The consumption of last year was diminished, in addition to the fact of the reduced supply. In consequence of the falling off in the demand, the prices have not been, as a general thing, remunerative. The Grocer asserts that there is no foundation for the report that canned goods are unwholesome, all the trouble being caused by careless or unskilful packing. , However this may be, we think that the use of cheap glass jars would tend to increase the popularity of the article, and the making of these jars would support another and. very useful local industry, a glassworks. Indeed such an enterprise is already established in Auckland, and it would no doubt welcome a wholesale demand for glass jars, and make the prices such as would warrant their use for this and many other purposes.