171

1.—12.

D. H. BUNDLE.

To Mr. Sidey: The Dunedin brown wrapping-paper is satisfactory. I went through some lemon-orchards in the Auckland District. The stock the trees are grown on is very inferior compared with the stock the trees in California are grown on. I saw trees offered for sale in the Auckland District that a nurseryman in California would be fined for selling. The lemontree is very liable to fungus diseases. In California 90 per cent, of the seed used is the Wild Florida orange.

Tuesday, 11th March, 1919, F, 0. Hamilton, Director of E. Buxton and Co. (Limited), examined. 1 wish to introduce my firm as the pioneer exporters of apiples from New Zealand. My information has been gathered during my many visits to Tasmania and Australia, and as a result of those visits there has come the extra planting of orchards in this district, with a view to working up an export trade. In 1910 my firm made a canvas of the district, and induced growers to make a trial shipment to London. This shipment, which arrived in Wellington in May, unfortunately received bad treatment on the way Home. Although the result was not what we had expected, it was shown that under proper conditions the fruit would have been a payable proposition if it had been landed in good order. Following this, plantations were put in wholesale. Next year a second shipment was sent. Again it received bad treatment. A small quantitydropped at Monte Video was eagerly sought for, and in 1912 the Nelson District sent 10,000 cases there, and in 1913 between 30,000 and 40,000 cases, while in 1914 between 60,000 and 70,000 cases were booked, but the shipment was stopped, as the boats had been diverted. South America was a very profitable market. Previous to New Zealand entering that market Hobart had catered for the whole of it, but we knocked Hobart right out. At any rate, as to the Home shipments :In 1912 the shipment arrived at a time when there was a glut, and the fruit was not as desirable as it should have been. I wish to say to the Committee that the Nelson District is the only district in the Dominion that is worth considering commercially, and the only district that is worthy of the consideration of the Committee. Last year was a partial failure in other districts, which are now dependent on Nelson for supplies. We have never known a failure here. Auckland, Hawke's Bay, and.Otago have failures, and one failure in three years will set fruitgrowers against apple-growing. In 1900 the Australian export of apples, including Tasmania, was 11,000 cases, in 1909 it was 204,000, and before the war it was about a million cases. It was estimated in 1909 in England that nine million and a half cases were being imported annually into England from North America and Europe. This shows that there is still a big field to be covered. The Nelson District is favoured, like Tasmania, because it produces an apple that carries colour and flavour right through. Other districts fail in- these properties. Some will have flavour and little colour, and others will have colour and no flavour. Nelson produces an apple equal to that of Hobart, if not a little better. This year 614,000 cases are going from the Commonwealth, of which number five-sixths are going from Tasmania. Now, how can we be put in the best position to meet the competition of our neighbours? Hobart has its natural advantages, and to compete against Hobart we must have harbour facilities here, so that mail-steamers that get prompt despatch from New Zealand can load,weekly and get away to the English markets within a given time. The Nelson acreage, on the 1916-17 agricultural returns, amounts to 8,000 acres. Working on a 7,000-acre basis, with 130 trees to the acre, will give us 910,000 trees. We assume that those trees are in bearing, and on a conservative estimate we get 1,400,000 bushels. We have only fourteen weeks to catch the market abroad, and therefore must handle 100,000 cases a week. If we have to send the fruit to Wellington to be shipped you would want fourteen steamers of the size of the " Nikau " to carry it to Nelson and do nothing else, or four steamers of the size of the " Pateena." The Chairman: Do you suggest that the harbour facilities should be improved by the Government?— Unless the big boats load here it will be death to the industry in Nelson. At present we have not the harbour facilities for loading fruit. You point out the danger to the trade on, account of not having harbour facilities? —Yes. If that quantity of fruit has to be carried to Wellington the cost will be very high, and in addition there would be the loss in the handling. The boats will not call here unless there are the harbour facilities for loading them within a limited time. At present we have no facilities for handling a big quantity in a given time. Either Government money has to be put into the extension of the railway, or roads put into order to facilitate motor traffic. We have the port here, where the fruit may be shipped under proper facilities, and therefore we can compete with Hobart, but if this is "not done the fruit will not be shipped and the Dominion will suffer materially. To Mr. Hornsby: We cannot take a boat in here that is partly loaded, and that would be our difficulty if boats were sent here after being partly loaded in other ports. Some of our fruit lands were previously used for the grazing of a sheep to 4 acres. The Riwaka land was used for dairying and hop-growing, and even with those profitable productions fruit with a favourable crop would beat it by a high percentage. To Mr. Hudson: We could not send away weekly shipments at present, but we could manage monthly shipments. There is no fear of not getting the proper varieties for monthly shipments. Bad packing told against us in the first shipments to London, but we have got over that difficulty now. Tasmanian experts were imported to demonstrate to growers the proper methods of packing, and the complaints now are practically nil. The quantities that will be produced next year will surprise you, and we must tackle at once the question of exporting to the Northern Hemisphere. Unless we get encouragement and proper facilities it will be death to the industry. The prospects of the boats going by South America are very remote, from what I can gather from the general manager. The extra cost of coaling at Monte Video is so greatas compared with coaling at Panama that the route via the Horn is not likely to be taken up again.