Fruit-preserving.—Jams and Jellies.

These industries are becoming firmly established in the colony, though enormous quantities of bottled and preserved page 24 fruit, and of jams and jellies, are still imported. There is no kind of produce for which New Zealand is naturally better fitted than fruit, and the success of jam factories in some parts of the colony, and the high quality of the preserved fruits exhibited in the Wellington Exhibition, prove that both capital and skill have been brought to bear. It is not altogether satisfactory to reflect that in this colony, largely composed of small fruitgrowing settlers, who should easily find a market for their produce, no less than 440,992lb. of jam were imported last year, the value being set down at £10,552. There is not a penny of this large sum that need have been sent out of the colony for food of this nature. Two things stand in the way of the industry. Insect blights on the fruit trees have increased to such an extent that the loss to fruit-growers, and especially to small settlers in Nelson and Marlborough, must be reckoned by thousands of pounds. Fruit-growers are also unfairly handicapped by boiled fruit-pulp coming into the colony free of duty. To meet the latter difficulty the same duty should be imposed as that upon bottled fruits; and to meet the former plague the Government should cause to be circulated all over the colony, in large numbers, copies of the valuable report of the Codlin Moth Committee last session, and of Professor Kirk's equally valuable report upon insect blights. The outlay which this circulation would involve might be considered as a judicious investment in the public interest, especially if done at the right time of the year.