POTATOES SUPPLIED FREE OF COST

Southland Times, Issue 24228, 11 September 1940, Page 4

POTATOES SUPPLIED FREE OF COST

PRODUCE FOR MILITARY CAMPS No charge will be made to the Defence Department for potatoes supplied to the military camps by the Invercargill City Council. At the meeting of the council last night it was stated that the department had offered to pay up to £l/10/- a ton for potatoes supplied from the vegetable growing scheme towards reimbursing the council for its outlay in the produce scheme. The Reserves Committee recommended that no charge be made for the potatoes and this was adopted. A suggestion placed before a previous meeting that a piggery should be established on endowment land at Seaward Bush was again considered. Extensive reports by the officers of the Reserves Department about the cost of establishing a piggery were considered and on the recommendation of the Reserves Department it was decided to inform the tenant who had offered to vacate his land that the council could not at present undertake such a scheme. The officers were thanked for their report.

A letter was received from the Controller of Employment in reply to the council’s offer to grow linen flax on the city reserves. It stated that as the Government would not be establishing a factory for processing the flax nearer to Invercargill than Otautau, it /would not be an economic proposition to'transport the flax straw more than 10 or 15 miles. It seemed, therefore, that the very good intentions of the council could best be utilized in the production of potatoes and hay crops.