KIHIKIHI NEWS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1926, 8 November 1884, Page 3

KIHIKIHI NEWS.

TUB DOMAIN. Thk trustees of the domain held a meeting on Saturday la>t in connection with the domain. The diaft of the lease was returned from Wellington with tunic alterations by the authonties. In the original draft a ceitain portion of the redone was to be opened to the public on stated days, but by the alterations the whole of it will now be open for six days in the year. The trustees hd\ c accepted the lease with these alterations. Opening the whole of the domain to the public may biut the latter very well, but it will not be so good for the levees as they w ill have to confine themselves entirely to grazing, for if they put in ciops of any kind they will be liable to be destroyed. Of coui^c, people will say no one would be mean enough to damage a gi owing crop, but the punciple is wrong; ten or fifteen acres would be ample for the requirements of pleasure seekers. There is not even an allowance made tor a gaiden, fco that any maliciously inclined person might, if ho cho^e, on any of the days admission was granted, do a lot of damage with impunity. If leases of such reserves are to be hampered with mich conditions few people will care about having anything to do with them. One man thought a racecourse should bo laid off in the domain. The next thing that will be asked for is free lunch and beer on holidays for the public, said lunch and beer to be piovided by the lessees. The Crown law officer, or whoever made the alterations, may display a great deal of zeal for the inteiests of the public, but ho might lea\e the conditions of lease to the tiustees, who would know better than he how to ai range matters satisfactorily, both for the public and the lessees. I cannot hay who is answeiable for these stringent conditions in this case, the trustees or the Crown law officer, but they are pretty rough on the tenants.

FIIUIT CULTURE. The suggestions re a hcnticultuial show made in a recent issue of The Waikato Times hhould ceitainly meet with the approval of fruit growers. Waikato has provod itself to bo peculiarly buitable for fruit growing, especially apples. Hitherto farmers have looked upon fruit growing more as an amusement for their leisure hours (which are few) than a bouice of profit. This is in a great measure owing to want of thought ; they never could have been aware of the large sums of money sent out of the colony every year for the purch.ise of fruit, Another reason for there being so few orchards in full bearing is that a few years ago grazing was so profitable an industry that farmers never turned their attention to anything else, and when the stock market went down they thought they could make a good living by growing grain, and so they went on, little thinking of the splendid living they could make by raising fruit for the market. Now that the Indian wheat can be delivered so cheaply in England, New Zealand wheat ;'■ e'fectually cut out of that market, and as we have not sufficient population to consume one twentieth part of our crops, we must turn our attention to something else, and what so profitable as the production of fruit and sugar-beet. If the money sent out of the colony every year for fruit and sugar were divided 'among the farmers, it would make a considerable difference in their incomes. The large farmers can fatten cattle profitably, whereas a small farmer cannot do so ; he must sell his cattle at certain times whether be will or no. Not so with the big man ; he can hold on for better times. But though grazing and cropping do not pay the small man, growing fruit and sugar-beet would, for there is no reason why there should not be a large export trade done in those commodities. I kpow one man who has only an acre of fruit trees, and last year he sold £G0 worth of fruity principally quinces (I am not certain indeed that it was not quinces alone), besides immense quantities used by his family (a very large one, by the way) and given away to friends, and .the quinces are but a very small proportion of the orchard. There was in that' orchard j alone at least £160 worth of fruit. Mr Farrell has a fine orchard here of about an I aqre in ex^ot, Some of the trees ar« oQm- 1

ing into bearing, and somo are in their prime. One tree, a very large one, will have, he believes, fully half a ton of applet). I never saw such a quantity of apples on a tree. His estimate will not be over the inirlc. Some of the Northern Spies have been in ten yoars, and are only bearing a little this year for the first time. The Ribstone Pippins are bearing splendidly, and aro quito free from blight, and it ia a kind very subject to it. The Irish Peach variety appear to be an early bearer, for the trees which are only three or four years old are ladpn, and will have to bo propped up. I hope frutfc growers will take the matter up, and that next autumn there will be a hoi ticultural show held in Hamilton. That is in my opinion the most suitable place, as it is central, for all districts, and easily accessible. There will be a grand show, for this is an exceptionally good year for some kinds of fruit, especially apples.— (Own Correspondent.)

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