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THE ESTABLISHMENT OF KIWIFRUIT GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RESEARCH PROGRAMME
I have not completed any original research for this paper and have accepted the sequence as reported by Ferguson, Bielski and Bollard in Kiwifruit, Science and Management.
I have also had the opportunity to speak with them and am grateful for the assistance they each gave me.
Early this century, seed introductions were made to England, the United States of America and France at a similar time to New Zealand but only the New Zealand introduction led to the development of commercial varieties.
Although only a small volume of seed was received, local nurserymen set about multiplying it and making their own selections.
Our kiwifruit history would seem to start in 1903 when Miss M.I. Fraser, the principal of Wanganui Girls College visited her missionary sister in China.
On her return in early 1904, she brought back with her a small quantity of seeds which we now know to have been A. deliciosa. The origin of this seed is not certain, but it is probable that it came from E.H. Wilson who was in China at that time collecting plants and seeds for the London nursery firm, James Veitch and Sons Ltd.
Miss Fraser then gave the seeds to a Wanganui solicitor and orchardist, Thomas Allison, who passed them on to his brother, Alexander Allison.
From Allison, seeds and plants passed to other nurserymen and orchardists throughout the North Island of New Zealand, with each making their own seedling selections.
Nursery catalogues as early as 1916 show plants being offered for sale and by the 1920’s they were widely advertised and distributed.
Many of these nurserymen made seedling selections which bore their names and some confusion existed about varieties and names until Harold Mouat of the Fruit Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, assisted by Department of Agriculture staff, established plantings under uniform conditions and traced the origin of the more important strains.
He named and described a number of these cultivars in the early 50’s.
From this classification, the best known varieties were Allison, Abbott, Bruno, Hayward, Gracie, Montgomery and Elmwood.
Only Hayward is now grown in New Zealand as a commercial export fruit and the others are rarely seen.
In 1966, it was estimated that kiwifruit plantings were: 50% Abbott, 25% Hayward, 20% Bruno, 5% Monty.
By 1980, 98.5% of kiwifruit plantings in the Bay of Plenty were Hayward, with 1.3% Bruno and the remainder with Abbott, Monty and other cultivars.
Today the change to Hayward is complete with 100% of the crop in this variety.
Bruno Just probably did more to promote the growing of kiwifruit than any one else, growing thousands of seedlings each year from the late 1920’s.
Harold Mouat who later classified the many cultivars recalls as a student traveling to the Bay of Plenty in a 3 ton truck with Bruno Just and selling plants from the back of it in the streets of Te Puke.
The first commercial orchards were planted in the 1930’s first in Wanganui and then in the Bay of Plenty.
The generally recognized “father” of the New Zealand kiwifruit industry, but not necessarily the “first” orchardist, is Jim MacLoughlin of Te Puke who purchased his first vines in 1932 and planted them in his lemon orchard.
They were of the