COMMITTEE TO WATCH FERTILISER SUPPLY FOR BAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 32, 31 August 1949, Page 5

COMMITTEE TO WATCH FERTILISER SUPPLY FOR BAY

A decision that they were not in favour of having small fertiliser committees throughout the Bay of Plenty was made by farmers at the quarterly executive meeting of the Bay of Plenty Province of Federated Farmers' at Matata.

Speakers indicated that they were more in favour of a committee comprising delegates from each of the main centres in the area. This committee could watch the fertiliser question in the Bay and report to the delegate to the Central Fertiliser committee which meets monthly in Auckland. The setting up of the proposed committee would start a bureaucracy thought Mr A. Robins (Rangitaiki). They would make little difference to the delivery. Mr Robins remarked that it was the responsibility of the works and the Railways Department to adjust themselves to handle the extra demand during peak periods.

Transport by water would solve the problem, stated Mr F. Wolsey (Te Puke) when speaking in support of Mr Robins. He had been ordering, and getting, his fertiliser in the spring and he thought that the answer to the problem was to advise farmers to order early. Mr H. Holmes (Opotiki) pointed out that during the period of peak fertiliser orders there was a lot of livestock being transported by rail and water transport was definitely the answer to the problem. Mr L. FriiS (Te Puna, the immediate Past President) pointed out that the setting up of these committees would be helping the works and the railways department out of a chaotic situation of their own making, and thought that the present working system in the Bay of Plenty was quite satisfactory. 1 The President, Mr S. A. Wells (Katikati) pointed out that the work of the committees would be merely to supply information of progress. He remarked that with the subsidies on water transport there was a reasonable hope for improvement in the situation next year.

Mr Friis then proposed that a committee comprised of one member from each of the main centres should be set up, and the following members of fhe executive were elected to the fertiliser committee which is to watch the interests of the farmers in relation to fertiliser in the Bay of Plenty: Messrs G. N. Vanstone (Opotiki), R. F. Wairdlaw (Waimana), J. A. Boulcott (Whakatane), D. Vercoe (Te Puke), J. D. Alach (Tauranga), N. L. Stone (Katikati) and S. A. Wells and E. J. Vosper (Provincial President and Secretary).