PHOSPHATE AT CLARENDON

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23970, 10 June 1943, Page 3

PHOSPHATE AT CLARENDON

MR POLSON URGES DEVELOPMENT From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON. June 9. The full development of the Clarendon low grade phosphate deposits was urged by Mr W. J. Poison (Opposition. Stratford) in the Budget debate in the House of Representatives today. Mr Poison described the deposits as being worth more than all the gold mines that had ever been found in New Zealand. Mr Poison said that if he estimated the value of the deposits at £100,009,000 he would be well below their real value. There were supplies of phosphates there to last many years. Urging the Government to go in ‘‘boots and all” tor the development of what he said were extraordinary deposits, he said New Zealand could be made independent of overseas supplies, and free from the effects of overseas shortages. He described a new extraction process used in Florida, where the deposits were not as easily worked as they were at Clarendon, and were not of as high quality. The Florida phosphate was sold cheaply, and he thought lhat Clarendon phosphate could be sold at about the same price as Nauru phosphate under normal conditions. Mr Poison suggested that the deposits could be developed by farmers’ organisations in a co-operative system, possibly with Government help. He understood that arrangements were being made with the company to rail the rock to Dunedin for the extraction of the phosphate; but he urged that machinery be imported by the Government for doing the work at the deposits themselves. If the job were not done properly, he said, it would be better not to do it at all. If a limited quantity were produced, that would go into the pool, and New Zealand would get less from overseas, he said. Fertiliser was the life blood of the Dominion. The development of the deposits was something the Government could take in hand tomorrow.