THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1907. THE FRUIT FLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8389, 28 March 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1907. THE FRUIT FLY.

It will be seen from a telegram which we publish, this morning, that the Minister of Lands has been advised that the fruit fly has again appeared at Napier. The discovery of the dreaded fly in orchards in Marlborough and Napier has caused considerable alarm amongst fruit-growers, and certainly suggests that the fly eucists in other districts and has, possibly, up to the present escaped detection. It' does not appear that much is known of the fly in this colony, and on this account there is all the more reason why the Agricu tural Department should make every effort to supply fruit-growers with the latest available information regarding the pest. Fruit-growers in the Masterton district would be safeguarding their own interests by obtaining as much'" (information about the fly as possible. If the insect establishes itself in New Zealand the fruit-growing industry will certainly have a real peril to face. The pest, mentioned has now a firm hold in Victoria, New South Wales and all the other States of the Commonwealth, with the exception of Tasmania. The fly is, of course, most destructive, and is said to be one of the few orchard pests for which no effective remedy has been found. It has been proposed that an entomologist should be sent to California and elsewhere to make researches in the hope that it may be found out how to successfully combat the dreaded pest. It has, apparently, been overlooked by those responsible for .this proposal that a Mr George Compere, an entomologist, in the employ of the West Australian Government, recently returned from one of his- periodical trips in search of natural enemies of orchard pests, and is reported to have discovered the parasite of the fly. In pursuit of this object Mr Compere is said to have travelled hundreds of miles up the rivers of Southern China, and eventually tracked the parasite to its haunts in Central India. In form it resembles a tiny wasp, and is so diminutive that it is almost invisible to the naked eye.

It attacks the fly when the latter is in the maggot stage in the fruit, and as it is strictly non-vegetarian it is not likely, in its turn, to become an orchard pest. The introduction of such a parasite would be a valuable protection to the fruit-growing industry. BOER EXPEDIENCY. The action of the Transvaal Ministry in proposing the re-enactment of the Labour Importation Ordinance of 1904 furnishes a cynical illustration of the hollowness and want of sincerity which often characterises party politics. At the last general election in England, when it was necessary to stop at nothing to turn the Balfour Administration out of office, and secure the return of a pro-Boer Government, the Boers were loud in their denunciation of Chinese slavery on the Rand. Now that they are masters of their own house they have dropped the mask, and have declared themselves in their own colours. They have joined with the Progressivesin demanding that the Chinese shall stay, and that the Government shall have full power to deal with the question of imported labour as they deem fit. This alliance sounds the doom of the white miner, and pr-actically hands the Transvaal over to the capitalist and Boer. How will the British Government view this position of affairs?