Teviot farmers reach the limit of their patience

Sir,- as a Teviot fruitgrower, I would like to endorse all that ‘‘Observer'' has to say in this morning's Daily Times with regard to fruit-growing in Otago Central as compared with the Teviot.

In the minds of unbiassed persons capable of sound judgment, there is absolutely no comparison between the two districts, particularly in the matter of apple growing, which after all is the crux of the whole industry, as the production of stone fruit must always be confined to local demand and preserving.

I defy any district in New Zealand to produce finer apples than are grown in the district from Ettrick to Coal Creek, and this practically without the necessity for irrigation.

Teviot fruit-growers have persistently refrained from entering into controversy with the people further up towards the interior, but the Central Otago growers and land-boomers should realise that there is a limit to our patience.

To my mind the limit is reached when fruit from the Teviot district is unblushingly used to boom land situated in Otago Central, while in the same breath the public are asked to believe that Central Otago fruit lands are far superior to Teviot.

Those interested in Central Otago are at liberty to say what they like about our district - it matters not to us who know what an ideal region we have for fruit-growing - but I would ask them to be a little impartial, and when a specially fine exhibit of fruit from Teviot is praised in the papers (as it has been on numerous occasions) as the product of Otago Central, then, I say, let them point out that honour is not being conferred where honour is due.

The figures quoted by ‘‘Observer'' in regard to quantities being railed from Teviot daily at present are quite within the mark, and lead us once again to marvel that the extension of the line from Clyde to Cromwell was granted, while the Teviot district, with its mature orchards and enormous crops, is left 25 to 30 miles from a railway terminus.

True, the extension from Beaumont to Miller's Flat has been authorised, but it is problematic when the work will be started.- I am, etc., POMOS.

■During a discussion on the question of afforestation at the annual conference of the Industrial Corporation, Mr M'Coll, an Auckland timber merchant, stated that tawa, which was once cut down and left to rot, not being considered of any value, had been found to be an excellent wood for cabinet-making, while tutu, a noxious plant, gave out no less than four different kinds of dye. - ODT, 21.1.1916.