
          378

"Fruit Blights & Diseases of Fruit-trees in
New Zealand, (Interior Report on, By
T. Kirk, F.L.S.). Presented to both Houses
of the General Assembly by Command of His
Excellency".  From this report dated Sept.
7, 1885, presented to "The Hon. The Minister of
Lands", and printed  by George Didsbury,
Govt. Printer, Wellington, N.Z. 1885-, I quote
as follows, prestating that Mr Kirk's observations
were confined to one year &
made between Feb. 27 & Sept. 7. He says "my
researches were practically restricted to the 
winter months."

"In the North Island the peach is everywhere
decaying, but notwithstanding the
depressing effect produced by the general
dying out of the tree, I believe its vigour may
be restored, and that the most important
step in the way of restoration will be found
indicated in my report." Introd. p. 2.

"The peach is liable to the attacks of numerous
fungoid & insect enemies capable of effecting a
serious diminution of the yield, and of exhausting
the energies of the tree; but the total amount
of injury caused by these unwelcome
parasites during a long series of years would be
but trifling when compared to the wholesale
destruction that has overtaken the peach
throughout the colony, and to which the name
'peach blight' is generally applied.  Thousands
of acres of peach orchards have been destroyed - the
grand peach groves of the Maoris in the Hokianga,
Kaipare [Kaipara], Waikato, Napier and Wanganui [Whanganui]
Districts are things of the past, and the peach
itself, once the most common fruit in the
        