PRIMARY PRODUCTION

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 13

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

THE VALUE OF FERTILISERS* SAFEGUARDING THE EXPORT MARKET. NEW PLYMOUTH. June 24. The encouragement given by the Government to farmers to keep fertilising land in order to obtain greater production was the subject of reference by the Minister of Agriculture' (-Mr A. J. Murdoch) in an address at the National Dairy Conference to-day. Concession rates had been provided in recent years, he said, for the carriage of lime and fertilisers. In 1914, the ■ amount of fertilisers imported into the Dominion was 100,000 tons, but in 1920 it was 335.176 tone. The enormous increase was to a large extent made possible by the Government’s assistance, for between 1926-27 and 1930-31 the Government had expended £337,604 in the carriage of fertilisers. Between 1924-25 and the present day the carriage of Ume had necessitated the expenditure of £202,000 from the Consolidated Fund. The Government, however, could not do everything, and to take money out of the Consolidated Fund was merely one way of taking it indirectly out of the farmers’ pockets. The sum of £lOO,OOO had been provided recently for the purchase ot fertilisers. At first, it had been decided to administer this fund through the Rural Intermediate Credit Board, but it was found that there was not sufficient elasticity, and the system had been altered until now it was satisfactory. Many inquiries had been made, and considerable assistance had been given. It was a step in the right direction, although th? facilities available were apparently not so widely known as they ought to be. In return for its £lOO,OOO the Government earnestly entreated farmers to concen-

trate on making use of the opportunity and keeping their pastures well fertilised with the object of increasing production. Mr Hoover’s suggestion to suspend for one year the international war debt payments should be of immense value in relieving the present serious economic position. said the Minister, and it might be that the war debts would soon be wiped out altogether. Of New Zealand’s total production of butter and cheese, said Mr Murdoch, only 20 per cent, of the butter and 4 pe r cent, of the cheese was consumed in the Dominion and the remainder had to be sold in the markets of the rest of the world. A disturbing factor was the dumping on the British market of Russian butter nt a low price. As a matter of fact, the Russian exports of butter to Britain had dropped from 18,600 tons in 1927-28 to 18,108 tons in 1928-29, and to 10,631 tons in 1929-30, but recently it seemed that a determined effort was being made to flood the British market, and there was a fear that the exportations to Britain from Russia might increase. If this occurred and the butter was put on the market at a low price the position would be serious for New Zealand. The Russian competition could be countered in only one way—by a British tariff against it. This tariff was not likely to be imposed at present but it might come in the near future Britain was realising that if the unity of the Empire was to be preserved a tariff must be imposed against foreign competition. ' ,