THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 163, 19 October 1910, Page 5

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

FROST PLAYS HAVOC AT HASTINGS. By Telegraph—Press Association.: Hastings, Yesterday. Eleven degrees of frost last night played havoc with fruit crops. It is estimated that £IO,OOO worth of damage was done. Practically the whole of the peach, plum, pear and early apple crops are destroyed. The manager of the Knipoi orchards estimates his loss at 30,000 cases, valued at £4OOO. All the orchards on the Heretaunga Plains are affected. The conference of fruit-growers, on assembling this morning, passed a vote of sympathy with Hawkc's Bay fruitgrowers in the serious loss sustained by them. The conference has dealt with all the remits on the order paper, and this afternoon will discuss rules for governing the proposed federation of fruitgrowers. The delegates expect to complete their work to-night and be free to attend the llawke's Bay Show tomorrow and Thursday. Hastings, Last Night. The reports as to the damage of the fruit crops by last night's unprecedented frost are in no way exaggerated, and the authorities now estimate it at no less than £20,000. The famous Frimley and Kaipoi orchards will be practically fruitless this year, and the loss there alone is estimated at £IO,OOO. Mr. Thomas Horton estimates his nur-' sery loss at £4OOO. It is twenty-two years since a severe frost was experienced here at this season of the year. Orchards on the Havelock Hills are not seriously affected, although some on the lower slopes have suffered severely.