FERTILISER SUBSIDY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 47, 17 October 1931, Page 5

FERTILISER SUBSIDY

Special Commissioner).

unfair method GOVERNMENTfS ALLDC ATION CHALLENGED IN " " r HOUSE WHY SUPER ONLY?

("Post"

WELLINGTON, Friday. "This bargain is one of the worst thmgs. dorie ]by a Minister Qf Agriculture m Kew Zealand," declared Mr C. A. Wilkinson, IridependeritV Egmont) , in the House of Representatives to-day in the course of „a d'enouricement of the action of 'the' Governmerit in providirig ' a .subsidy bn superphosphate fertiliser only.' Mr Wilkinson deciared .that superphosphate w'as only one of three elements in fertiliser and that twp-thirds of the top dressing carr jed out in the North Island was done with manures other than superphosphates., V "Why are the users of other topdressing fertilisers penalised1 in favour of' one kind of fertiliser?." demanded Mr Wilkinson, who suggested that' the arrangement made by the Minister was palpably a bad bargain. In ' addition, the North Island users ■were heavily penalised in other ways. Not only were two-thirds of r them deprived of "the benefit of the Gdvernnierit's bounty of ils a tori, but they would have to contribute to the taxation from which the subsidy was made rivailable'. ' - - • • "South Island Minister" • The statistics for X930-, said Mr Wilkinson, showed that in the- North Island 1,453,000 aeres were top dress-

ed with 296,150 tons of fertilisers, while in the South Island- the area treated '.was only 308,000 acres and the quantity of fertiliser used was 3.9,200 tons. Of the total amount used in New Zealand, superphosphafe aecounted for 177,000ritdns iri fee North Island and 27,000 to'ris in the! South Island. Therefore, the subsidy was paid in respect to 2Q2,000 tons only out of a total of 325", 000 tons used in top dressing. "Does this South Island Minister," inquired Mr. Wilkinson, "know anything about the requirements of the North Island? He has not fakeri into consideration the fact that two-thirds of the users of top dressing in the North Island do not use super. Super is a stimulating fertiliser and' can only be used profitably in conjunction with lime and thousands of farmers prefer the use of slag." To support his contention that there were other instances of unfairness as far as North Island users were concerned, Mr Wilkinson said the price of super was £'3 17s 6d 'in both Tslands, but' in the* South Islahd, tHe farmer did not have to pay railway freight, while the North Island farmer had to pay an aver age freight rate of 7s 6d a ton. Mr. Jones Interjects "That is not correet," interjected the Minister of Agriculture, the liori. D. Jones. Mr W. D. Lysnar: "The Minister comes from the South Island."' ' Mr Wilkinson: "It is time we had a Minister who kriows something about the North Island." He added that, in addition, the North Island farmer had to pay booking fee of 7s 6d a ton, whereasin the South Island this fee was only 5s a ton. What did members repre-. senting rural constituencies have to say on that point? What did the Minister of Native Affairs have to say?" he asked. * Sir A. Ngata: "We don't use slag."Mr Wilkinson: "Perhaps that is the, reason." He asked why it was thrit merchants in the South Island receivi ed 12s 6d a ton and North Islapd merchants only 6s 6d a ton for distributing superphosphates. Still ariother strange feature was that South Island manufacturers received £3 10s a ton, whilst North Island manufacturers received £4 2s, a difference o£ 12s a ton in" favour of the North Island malcer. Mr Wilkinson said that tb^ Government's action in giving the whole' of the £100,000 subsidy to one section of the users of top dressings showed that the Minister of Agriculture did not know his job.