PROTECTION FOR NEW ZEALAND FRUIT GROWERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3024, 1 December 1891, Page 2

PROTECTION FOR NEW ZEALAND FRUIT GROWERS.

♦ The following is the petition issued by the Whangaret Fruit-growers' Association and referred to in our Saturdays issue :— Petition to the Hon. Mr McKenzie, Minister of Lands : We, the undersigned, beg ti draw your attention to the unsatisfactory sta-te of the Fruit Industry and the disadvantages under which the New Zealand growers labour, censed chiefly by the free importation of fruit from the South Sea Islands. The Ne'v Zealand growers are actually driven to the English market t> find purchasers for their fruit while their own market at their very doors is swamped by the Island produce, the production of cheap I'ibour, so that we occupy the anomolous position of allowing our New Zealand growers to bo elbowed out of their own market and driven to the other side of the globe to find one, the froight to Eugland fcliine amounting to whit would be a good paying price for the fruit in Nnw Zealand, iind the grower being at the still further disadviintige af having to pay in advance the freight which amounts to from JL'25 1 .■> £30 per 100 cases, usually a larger sum than he ultimately receives. It is impossible for a white mau to compt<3 with the Island grown fri'it under the present conditions. Take oranges for example. The trader purchases the fruit from the natives at the rate of Is per case of 100 oranges (a price that our mori civilised and independent labourer woulJ nut accept for gathering and packing alone), and the freight to New Zealand is Is. So that if the fruit realises -Is nr Gs a case at auction there is a fair profit to the importer. Compare this with fruit grown in New Zealand : the cost of gathering, packing, and delivering t> si.'ii ner amounts to 2-> pet casn ; freight south of Auckland, Is 3d ; wharfage, &c bringing the l."l,:il cost to at least 4s, so that if the fruit, sold for 53, there would bo only Is per left to the grower for the cultivation aud management of his orchard and to pay interest on ttie invested capital. The competition is a most unfair one, as the Island fruit has the advantage of cheaper labour, cheaper freight, and a more productive climate. Against this the New Zealander can only place his greater intelligence and industry, Most of the Island fruit, bananas and pines especially, so far as we know, cannot be grown successfully in New Zealand, but when the markets are full of cheap bananas and pines, what chance is there of obtaining a fair price for our early apples, poars, peaches, plums, grapes, cherries, &c. ! and this is exactly what has taken place since there has been a regular eteam service to the Islands, a service that was initiated by a Government subsidy.

The grape industry will show what protection has effected. Since the importation of grapes was prohibited the industry has (rfwually grown, until it now employs a laTge amount of labour and capital in the oounfcry. We are strongly in favour of a protection duty on all imported fruit in preference to the offering of bonuses, as this latter plan only assists a few, and probably only those large growers who are least in need of assistance. Surely what New Zealand requires at the present time is a profitable industry for the settlers on the land, and it is the want of this which prevents the lands being occupied. So far it is the town industries that have grown under the wing of protection and drawn together the people. Is it not time for the country to receive some consideration at the hands of our representative Government?

The promiscuous importation of fruit has introduced ioto New Zea'and several noxious Deste as the codlin moth, mussel scale, white .scale, etc., and the fruitgrower never knows when he is safe or when the trees thr.t he has planted and reared with so much expense and labour will be destroyed by some devastating pest.

We, therefore, beg you will take into consideration the immediate protection of our New Zealand grown fruit by increasing tho small duty on those fruits that are already protected, continuing the prohibition on the importation of grapes and levying a duty on all foreign fruit, and especially those that come from the South Sea Islands and other countries.