LIME FOR FARMERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 8

LIME FOR FARMERS

PROPERTY NEAR TE KUITI NEW COMPANY GIVEN OPTION From Our■ Own Correspondent TE KUITI, Today. The possibility of a new lime company commencing operations near Te Kuiti was disclosed at the monthly meeting of the Waitomo County Council yesterday. The chairman of directors of the Challenge Phosphate Company, Mr. W. Goodfellow, and Mr. Cassells Brown, superintendent of the company, waited on the council with a request for an option till January 31 over the reserve property of the council at Waitete, about three miles from Te Kuiti. Mr. Goodfellow said it was realised that cheap lime was necessary for the Waikato and Auckland Province, where a serious deficiency of lime in the soil existed. The company would possibly be able to produce lime at a cost of about 15s a ton. In the South, truck lots were being sold at 12s 6d a ton. The prevalence of disease among dairy cattle in the Waikato, said Mr. Goodfellow, was attributable to a shortage of lime in the soil. It was realised that compound manures and superphosphate were insufficient. The lime near Te Kuiti was not of the best quality, but a deposit as near to the Waikato as possible was necessary, hence the arrangements being made locally. If the option were secured, he said, operations would commence in the near future, and investigations and chemical analysis would be conducted An output of at least 10,000 tons annually was anticipated, and there would be no limit to the amount that the company, if started, would turn out. The price would be governed by the output, and the company would endeavour to turn out as large a quantity as possible. If the company was started it would prove a boon to the farmers. The council afterward considered the proposal and decided to grant the request.