NAURU PHOSPHATES

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 255, 22 July 1921, Page 7

NAURU PHOSPHATES

STATEMENT BY DR. REAKES PLANT, AND COST TO FARMER Information regarding tho supply of phosphates front Nauru and Ocean Islands was yesterday asked of Dr. Rcakes, Director of Agriculture, by delegates to the conference of tho Council of Agriculture. Air. J. H. Absolom inquired whether it was a fact that a recent ehipload of 2600 tons of Nauru phosphate had cost £4 18s. at Auckland wharf, and that tho manufactured article cost £7 18s. Sir Walter Buchanan said that before Dr. Rcakes spoke on the subject, he wished to mention some 'information which had 'been given to him by a gentleman who had had a good deal to do with the supply and. manufacture of manures, and who was a farmer into the bargain. His informant had stated that as far as he could see no adequate preparation had been made to ensure that the phosphates should be supplied to the farming community at tho very lowest possible cost. He had been offered, he told the speaker, rock phosphate of the same analysis as Nauru phosphate at a price much below that indicated some time ago, under Government authority, for Nauru phosphate. He added that this was necessarily so unless tho Government either directly or indirectly saw that the necessary steps were taken for the handling of the rock phosphate on its arrival in New Zealand; that under present conditions it seemed to be proposed to supply the Wellington district with ground phosphate from the crushing plant at Auckland’; that in these circumstances it was impossible to supply" the manure at anything like so low a eost ns it could bo supplied at if the proper steps were taken. The speaker was not expressing his own opinion, but that of his informant. Dr. Reakcs would be able to tell the conference tho pbint to which the Government had got in regard to actual crushing and supply of Nauru phosphate. The time was fast coming when farmers all over New Zealand would he looking for the phosphate, and asking what was tho supply and what the cost. '

Dr. Reakcs said that with regard first to the question of price, ho had a quotation published in a newspaper on June 20 showing Tnw phosphate nt £7l 12s. a ton. Before he left for Australia in tho beginning of Afar, ho had been advised by an Auckland company that it was putting ground raw phosphate on the market at £7 155., three shillings a ton mpre. But he thought it was necessary that the exact position in regard to supplies of the phosphate should be understood.

"Owing to reasons which I cannot go Into here, but which wore bound up in negotiations carried on in the Old Country. tho actual commencement of tho operations under which New Zealand was able lo obtain raw phosphate was delayed a good deal longer than had. been anticipated,” said the Director. "It is only comparatively lately that cargoes of that phosphate have been coming to hand. At the some time companies, including a largo farmers’ company, had contracts for the supply of phosphates from other sources, at a much higher price than that at which we are able to supply Nauru and Ocean Island phosphate. The practice in the trade has been that manufacturers order their requirements months ahead, and that shipping is arranged for months ahead, being usually on a charter basis for the period. As the result of that, the more costly rock phos ' ate has been coming into New Zealand until lately. The last cargb came only a. month ngo, or within the last two months, at any rate. That is a sort of transition period which has been a little awkward in the matter of prices. I can assure the conference, however, that the Government nnd the Department are keeping in very close touch with the question of prices. I am in correspondence over it nt the moment, nnd I think developments will very shortly be seen.”

As regarded tho question of facilities for dealing with tho phosphate on its arrival in this country, Dr. Reales said that two large plants had been in process of erection when the business b'-'gan to look liko coming to a head. One had been completed already, and was at work. The other, in Canterbury, was not yet finished, and ho thought there was little doubt that the difficulty of getting supplies of building material, machinery, nnd so on had caused greater delay than had been expected. However, when these plants wore working, together with those that wero already in existence, there ivould be facilities for dealing with very large quantities of raw material, both in the way of turning it out in tho ground form, and in the way of manufacturing the superphosphate. Sir Walter Buchanan: What about the supply to Wellington ? Dr. Reakes: I am discussing a point in connection with Wellington Province just now, and I cannot very well talk about it. Asked by a delegate whether under the existing arrangements there was not going to he some unfairness in the matter of cost to farmers outside the Auckland Province. Ur. Reakes eaid that tho existing plants were in Auckland, Dunedin, and Invercargill. A largo new plant was in course of erection near Christchurch. This would be of very large capacity.