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2. Will you tell the Committee what experience you have had in fruit-culture? —My boyhood was passed amongst orchards in the West of England. During the last fifteen years I have been managing the Styx Company's orchards. Nine-tenths of the capital of that company has been found by myself—l might almost say that lam the company. We have 33 acres of orchard, old bush land, which has been highly cultivated and planted. 3. What kind of fruit do you grow ? —The great proportion are apple-trees. There are 3or 4 acres of pears and a few plums. I only claim to have any practical knowledge of apples and pears. Ido not profess to know much of other fruits. 4. Would you tell us what experience you have had with such pests as you have, and which you find the most troublesome ?—ln our orchard we have no codlin-moth at all. We have the scale and the red spider and the American blight. I understand that Mr. Wilson in his evidence yesterday said there have been some isolated cases of the moth near Christchurch, but not in our district. There are none in our orchard. 5. Which of the pests have you found most troublesome in your orchard ?—-I should place the scale first, and then the red spider, and last the American blight. 6. What means have you taken to get rid of these pests ? —For some years it was a case of laissez-faire policy. We had an antiquated system of pruning. We simply went on the old lines of severe winter-pruning and letting the trees alone at other seasons, but for the last seven or eight years we have adopted an entirely different policy. We prune close in summer as well as in winter, and give the trees plenty of air and sunlight. Thus we grow our fruit on the thick branches and have no weedy shoots. We cut our trees down to a reasonable height, and crop the main branches only. That is most important, not only to prevent loss from the prevailing high winds, but also for convenience in spraying the pests. 7. Has that resulted satisfactorily ?—Unquestionably. We have Sprayed systematically. We are doubtful about the efficacy of winter spraying for scale. We find that it completely destroys most parasitic growths, and from repeated examination with the microscope we find, also, that it destroys a good percentage of the scale, but it will not exterminate it. 8. Has the scale been well kept under?— Yes ; I doubt whether it is possible to eradicate it altogether without a great expenditure of labour and money, but it has been kept under so that the trees have grown well, and the fruit has been so clean that we have been able to market it to advantage. 9. Will the dressing for scale last for a year?—No; we dress with lime, sulphur, and salt in winter, and with weaker dressings in summer. I have also used caustic potash and soda in winter. It is more effective, and corrodes the scale better than lime-sulphur-and-salt wash. 10. Could you tell us your own experience, and also that of other people generally : have they generally adopted the same system ?—Yes ; Mr Sisson and Mr. Wilson, and a good many other fruit-growers there, adopted the same system. 11. And the codlin-moth has been no trouble in your district generally? —No, I do not think it has been any trouble at all. There have been isolated cases. I know of one instance, but, very properly, steps were taken, under the supervision of Mr. Blackmore, and it was stamped out. There is no possible doubt of the efficacy of spraying. You cannot grow good fruit in any quantities without considerable spraying. I should say that if it is to be effectual you must certainly spray four times at least in the year, and with many trees as often as six or seven times. This has been our practice. 12. You have not had any occasion to use bandaging, as you have not got the codlin-moth ?—No. 13. Have you read this Bill ? —Yes. 14. Would you give the Committee your opinion generally on the provisions of the Bill ?—I think that it was a dozen years ago that our Fruit-growers' Association started, and I have been chairman of the committee ever since. From that time till now we have been persistently urging our views in favour of legislation in the direction aimed at by this Bill. Our industry has been growing with every prospect of success, and our chief complaint has been that infected fruit has been brought in from foreign places, from Tasmania and Australia, and from distant parts of New Zealand, and would infect our orchards. In many instances the cases in which the fruit was sent were simply reeking with moth. We knew that once the moth got established in our orchards it would be almost fatal to our industry. It has been said that the strong winds prevalent in Canterbury would prevent the moth propagating freely, but I am satisfied that this view is erroneous. The winds there will have no effect in stopping the inroads of the moth once established. The damage from all other pests put together would be nothing as compared to the damage from the moth if once it got a firm hold. 15. Can you suggest any points in the Bill in which practical improvements can be made ?—I have gone through the Bill carefully, and I venture to make a few suggestions. In the first place, I draw a distinction between the pests which can be disseminated through the country by means of the fruit and the pests which I think cannot be disseminated by means of the fruit. The only one that I am practically concerned with which can be so disseminated is the codlin-moth. Mr. Wilson in his evidence yesterday stated that large quantities of fruit were imported from other parts into Canterbury for the purpose of cider-making, and that the moths and their larvas were absolutely swarming about the Lyttelton Wharf. Every sack was reeking with the moth. We saw that it was very dangerous, and we made strong representations to the firm who imported the fruit, and they courteously stopped the importation of any more such fruit; but there was no law to prevent them, and there is nothing to prevent a recurrence of the danger. 16. Then there have been steps taken to prevent the importation of infected fruit ? —Yes ; but such steps were voluntary. Infected fruit can still be brought from other places inside the colony. It may be stopped coming in from other colonies, but there is no law which prevents it coming from other parts of this colony and thus infecting clean districts.