DISEASED POTATOES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 274, 10 April 1911, Page 5

DISEASED POTATOES

IMPORTED TUBERS CONDEMNED. THEIR SALE STOPPED. For some time past 'it lias been known that the potatoes in the Otago district had been infected very seriously with grubs, owing, it is understood, to the very dry weather that has been experienced there. It was not thought that the Canterbury potatoes were aifected at all, but they have turned out to be more or less so. A southern merchant forwarded about three weeks ago to a New Plymouth firm a shipment of potatoes amounting to about 700 or 800 sacks. They were found to have been attacked by the worm—a small species somewhat similar to that of the codlin moth—and the merchant refused to take delivery. The worm in the majority ol cases had just entered the outside ol the tuber, the main portion of whicK was sound and apparently fit for human consumption. The merchant at the other end promptly wired to a local firm of auctioneers to cart the potatoes away and sell to the best This was accordingly done. How such potatoes were eter allowed to pass the inspectors at the shipping port is a question that requires answer* ing, because they were a distinct menacQ to local growers, and may, unless ex* treme care is used in disposing of them, be the means of spreading another ser!* ous pest in our midst. Even now the district is not altogether clear of it, ax two or three local growers report the presence of the worm in their tubers, which were grown from apparency dean southern potatoes of last season. Last week a further line of 160 bags of potatoes arrived here, but these were in an exceptionally bad state, literally riddled with the worm, and unfit even to be handled. The grub was in M advanced stage, nearly every sack! bearing cocoons. These sacks lay in the railway sheds for a few days, and on Saturday were advertised to be sold as pig feed, Mr. F. B. Gardiner, the local health officer, having prohibited their sale for human consumption, this being as far as his powers allowed him tb go. The power of absolutely preventing them from being disposed of, or of Ordering their destruction, lay in the Orchards, Gardens and Apiaries branch of the Agricultural Department, which hag no representative in New Plymouth. Communication with that department resulted in Mr. T. W. Kirk, the director, instructing the local Stock Department, of which Mr. Munro has charge, te seize the potatoes and prevent their sale. This has accordingly been done, and the potatoes are now held awaiting further instructions from Mr. Kirk. It is stated that there is likely to be trouble over the matter, and it is to T>e hoped there will be, especially for those responsible for passing the diseased tubers on to Taranaki, as, once aboard the vessel, they had to be landed at the port to which they were consigned. It is known that similarly affected potatoes have been railed to other parts of Taranaki. At tnglewood last week an indignation meeting was held over the matter, and the attention of the authorities was drawn to it. Hawera has also complained of the diseased potatoes being landed there. The failure of the potato crop is undoubtedly a serious loss to southern growers, and will probably mean that that article of food will be expensive this winter, but what affects Taranaki people most is the possibility of the pest being spread broadcast throughout the district.