Fifty-Year Plan For Sheep Industry

Chronicle (Levin), 6 July 1949, Page 7

Fifty-Year Plan For Sheep Industry

ROYAL commission's proposals The report of the Royal Commission on the sheep industry, a volumiiious document, has been released by.the Minister of Agriculture. ' ' In effect, the recommendation of the Commission is a gigantic national deveiopnient seheme aimed to increase the production of • tiie sheep industry, 011 the Commission 's estimates, from £70,000,000. :: of exportable surplus. annually to £150,000,000 of. ;exportable annual : surp'lus in about.flfty ; years' time. The whole 'of this plan is set out step by step' Hvith its detailed r'equirements of fertiliser, seed, etc., based 011 the Commiss'idn's estimates of the prebable availability of fertiliser and seed and of stock for the developed areas. The setting up of a marginal lands board under the administration of the Minister of Lands is recommended to control the deveiopnient of. th-is "fifty year" plan.

The prineipal problem referred to the Gommissioii was tlie checkihg of deterioration on liill' country, a problem usually xeferred to as that of marginal land. Tlie Commission has dividod land into rhree groups. First!y, "eeonomic" land which it is eeonomic for the faniier to develop -and t'arm under present conditions. SecondLy; "marginal" land which should be. developed but which for various reasons ihe farnier is unable to develop' at present. Thirdly, "uneeonomic" land which should be left undeveloped at least for the present. The Commission has rejected as unsound and ineft'ective any seheme to lielp these marginal lands by means of a subsidy on fertiliser. Sheep Industry Organisation. Considerable reorganisation . of the ndniinistrative representation of the sneep industry is recommended by the Commission which has praised the. urgauisauon of the dairy industry. A parallel forni of organisation is recommended for the sheep industry . with a Sheep industry Board as the equivalent of the Dairy Board, the exisiing aieat Board as the equivalent' of tlu Dairy 1'roducts Marketing Commission and a Sheep Divfsiou the equivalent of the Dairy Division in the Department of Agriculture. The present Wool Board is to be re placed by the new Sheep Industry Boaid. In place of the existing eleetion system, the country is to be divided into eight wards each eontainiiig aj)proxinuitely four million sheep The Commission has set out in detaii these proposed wards. Each ward is to elect oue member of the Sheep Board and oue of these ward members is to be chairman. In addition to tlu eight ward members, there are to be three other membefs, tke chairman of Ihe Meat Board qMcio) "and twc Government nomihb^l. dne of whom is: to kave a speeia»Hsed,.,.v knowledge ot wofking condifi|^^'Tlre Sheep Indus- ' try Board is ^tefayj^pvide advisory. powers and is ' to Ifef/a^cepted by the (overnment i as kpeftkihg authorita.tively for the sheep .industry. In each ward, every sheep farmer is . to nave a vote for every sheep he v;.p.ossp§§es^|j, shown in^ the return of sneep-owners. This " pfovisio'ii is inserted in order to gain a proper proportional balance between the various gioups and interests within the industry. ■Blections are to be held in two wards each yxar, and board members are to serve lor a torni of four years. Provision is recommended that some ot tlie members of the Wool Board auto matically become members of the new Slieep Industry Board for a short term in order to give continuity which tlu Commission has considered essential. The Commission has stated that the Departments of Lands and Agriculture should be the only ofiicial agencies dealing with farming. The Lands Department should deal with all matters of land occupation and the Agriculture Department with all matters concerning farming technique. Erosion. On tfie subject of erosion and soil conservation, the Commilssion has beeu lughly critical. Consequently it is difficuit to summarise and this section needs to be read in full to be clearly understood. Dficiiy the Commission has vlewed the esjfcnLiais today as (1) manure and good husbandry to raise fertility and establish permanent pasture and (2) the e:r.termination of rabhits together witn researcii mto pasture plants to replace the cover when,the rabbits are cleared. If this is done, the uonnmssion has considered that there is no cr.ii lor the Catchment Board programmes which would cost ahout £200,000,000. The Commission has branded much of the soil conservation literature as "misleading propaganda" and has recommended the abolition of Catchment Boards, the control of land conservation to pass to the Lands Department v/icli all engineering done directly hy the Ministry of Works. Good Farming. A substantial and important section of tlie Commission 's report deals with the requirements of good farming and

the tenure conditions necessary for good farming. The Commission has defined these conditions as (1) the *encouragement and rewarding of good husbandry, (2) the making of eeonomic units and conditions that will enable good husbandry and (B) if these conditions are provided under both (1) and (2), the penalising of bad farming if it still persists. Maori Land. The Commission has recommended a special enquiry into the whole subject of Maori land to apply the following general principles: — "That all land in New Zeaiand. whether it is pakeha laAd or whether it is Maori land, must be farmed for the maximum production in the national interest. There should be no exceptions 'to this rule, either pakeha exceptions, or Maori exceptions. We are suggesting mea'sures to deal with. the pakeha Avho does not farm his land j We think it is only just that measures should be iptroduced to deal with the Maori whose land is not farmed. Land Development. The policy of the Lands Department in developing relatively small areas of pumice country is endorsed, with lngh praise for the work done on the Mangakino 'bloek. "Under present conditions," says the Commission, "the amount of virgin land which can be brought in for sheepfarming is necessarily restrieted, and no great programme of expansive development should be undertaken until such time as the existing sheepfarming country is put into good condition, ' ' The "Long Paddock." One of the unusual, but- interesting. recommendations of the. Commission if? eonsideration of the future of, the. areas of land which flank roacls. and rail- ■ ways. The Commissiou ' is of the opiii ion that New Zeaiand needs the .production from such of these lan.dk as • will produce, and these amount to . thousands of acrek. "It ;is a- matter which the Government should hold in view." Fertiliser. The Commission has endorsed its interim recommendatian for a standard price for fertiliser— a' price of £8 10s per ton delivered on the farm knywhere in New Zeaiand. The Commission has also set out the quantities of fertiliser which will be required. amounting finaliy to 1,500,000 tons. in 50 years' time. To fill part of this supply, the Commission .has recommended that all local authorities eompost organie wastes on the pattern of the seheme of the : Dannevirke- Borougli Council. "... - Rabbits. The Commission has held that rabbits are the chief eause of the deple- ! tion which has occurred in the South Island partieularly. The need for a bold policy of exterminating rabbits is stressed. Weeds. Strong measures for the control of weeds are recommended by the Commission. After endorsing proposals for the revision of the Noxious Weeds Act, the Commission says: "We are very gravely coneerned at what we have seen on the tour. It mi'ght be considered a shameful effect of 100 years' occupation that so manv wbeds should appear on the landscape. ' Back-Country Conditions. The Commission has been outspoken on the subject of back-country condi- 1 tions. "We consider it is not the wish ' of the people of New .Zeaiand that; men and women should work under such hard conditions. Their's has been' a hard life of endeavour against mount- } ing odds with only dwindling resourees to carry On. In'many a case hope has receded and given place to despair re-, sulting in the abandonment of pro-! perty." Necessary remedial measures! are stated as: — (a) An all-weatlier access road in-i volving the immediate metalling of the existing clay roads; (b) the compulsory abolition of county riding accountsj with equalis.ation of roading costs! over all the country; (c) better education facilities, details of which are recommended; (d) improved telephone facilities; (e) electricity wherever possible; (f) community facilities assisted by the Department of Internal Affairs.