REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE FRUIT INDUSTRY. 553 



principally to the partial failure of the beet crop on the Continent, and 

 was confident that, if there were a good crop next season, the price 

 would fall again. He pointed out that sugar was then being sold by 

 speculators for delivery next December at 4s. a cwt. less than its 

 present price. While not denying that the abolition of the bounties 

 had contributed to some extent to the rise in price, he stated that a large 

 increase in the production of cane sugar was likely to take place in 

 consequence of their abolition, and said that already large quantities of 

 the latest and best machinery were being sent to the principal cane- 

 growing countries ; thus ultimately there would probably be an increase 

 in the total amount of sugar produced in the world. With regard to 

 the duty, he objected to it, both on the ground that it was a tax on 

 one of the raw materials of the manufacture of jam, and also because 

 it was too high, amounting to about Id, a lb. on sugar and \d. a lb. on 

 jam — jaru consisting roughly of 50 per cent, of sugar and 50 per 

 cent, of fruit. 



95. Whatever may be the effect of the rise in the price of sugar on 

 the jam industry (and indirectly on the fruit industry) in the future, the 

 evidence before the Committee, taken as a whole, indicates that at 

 present it has not affected it to a serious extent ; although they are of 

 opinion that the continuance of the present price would have a most 

 detrimental effect, by raising the price of jam to the consumers (the great 

 majority of whom consist of the working classes), and so largely 

 diminishing the sale. 



General. 



96. We have considered all the main grievances brought before us 

 by the various witnesses, and have endeavoured to deal with them in 

 order. We may now allude briefly to one or two other points. 



97. Certain defects in the present form of returns for land under fruit 

 have already been alluded to in that portion of the Report which dealt 

 with the growth of the fruit industry. The Committee suggest that the 

 form should be modified so as to be simpler, and, at the same time, more 

 suited to the existing conditions of horticulture. Orchards in grass, as 

 well as small fruits under trees, have now to be entered twice over, creating 

 considerable uncertainty ; whilst for plantations of dwarf trees there is 

 actually no place at all for entry except under the heading of " bare 

 fallow." The Committee suggest that the grower should return his total 

 fruit-holding under the two main headings of : — (a) in grass land ; (6) 

 in cultivated ground, and should state roughly under subsidiary headings 

 the proportion of each of these areas which is occupied by the individual 

 kinds of fruits growing in them. The Committee are aware that any 

 change in the form of returns tends to destroy the continuity of the 

 record ; but the growth of the fruit industry would render some such 

 change inevitable before long, and, therefore, the sooner the change is 

 made, the better. 



98. It has been pointed out that it would be of considerable advantage 

 to growers to obtain information as to the probable crops of fruit in 

 foreign countries, and as to the magnitude and date of arrival of large con- 

 signments of fruit from abroad, and the Committee consider that there 



