THE FRUIT FLY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9188, 10 September 1908, Page 3

THE FRUIT FLY.

The statement made by Major Broun at Auckland to the effect that the Queensland fruit fly will not breed in New Zealand, is emphatically contradicted by the Minister for Agriculture and the officials of the Department. In support ot this contradiction, it is stated that experiments at Wellington have proved conclusively that the fly will breed, even in tne air, in the coolest part of the city, viz., on the water-front. The fly, so it has bean stated has been bred on the sill of one of the windows of the offices of the Department, in the Customs building, overlooking the harbour. The Minister has also declared that Major Broun's assertion is disproved by the breeding of flies in orchards in Auckland, H awke's Bay, and Marlborough. The flies, he says, have also been reared in gauze fact beyond challenge that the Queensland, as well as the Mediterranean fly, will breed in New Zealand. He also says that the Mediterranean fly is far more common throughout the Pacific Islands than the Queensland variety, which Major Broun statea is "the fly infesting thj Islands."