The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23
Olives
Olives.
With regard to olives, there can be no doubt that, although of slow growth, the plant can be successfully cultivated in the colony. The production of olive oil is a highly important matter, and likely to be more so as woollen factories increase and the demand for the oil, which is used in that manufacture, enlarges. Dr. Hector recommends a systematic importation of olive truncheons, instead of the plant being grown here from eyes and buds. Last year the olive oil imported, free of duty, amounted to 29,077 gallons, valued at £5,467. As the plant matures it would be well to offer a bonus for the first large quantity of olive oil produced in the colony, and to impose the-same import duty as exists in Victoria—6d. per gallon.