Citizens Say—

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 961, 2 May 1930, Page 8

Citizens Say —

(To the Editor.)

“SECOND THOUGHTS.. ” Sir,—Your correspondent, N. P. Lewis, seems to take a certain amount of satisfaction out of details of the Wanganui election, 1911, as concerning Mr. W. A. Veitch and subsequent “alleged’* inconsistencies. Is he also aware that, at that same General Election, 3 911. Mr. .7. Gordon Coates won his first election in Kaipara as a Liberal pledged to support Sir Joseph Ward? Was he also guilty of inconsistency when he, in 1912, helped to put the Liberal Government out, and Reform in? J. REA. “BEHIND THE THRONE” Sir,Mr. Forbes, when at Parnell, spoke of the old “sag” that the United Government is dominated by SocialistLabour. Mr. Donald, hearing this, picked up the phrase and has ever since been repeating it. These United speakers are evidently most anxious, especially in view of the by-election, to conceal from the public the real nature of the relations between the Government and Socialist-Labour. Yet no amount of airy talk about it as a "gag” can alter the bare fact that the United Party is held in office only bv the support of the Socialist-Labour Party. After the last General Election the new United Government had a clear choice: it could have looked either to Reform or to Labour for support. It rejected Mr. Coates's offer of support, and accepted Mr. H E Holland's. Since then the Government of the country has been in the hands of this United-Labour combination The minority party on the Treasury benches has been utterly at the mercy of that other party, the Socialist-Lab-our Party, the support of which has been—and is—absolutetly vital to the Government. The position occupied by United Ministers must be most humiliating. Before they can decide upon any action or policy they are obliged to consult, not only the caucus of their own party, but also the Labour Party

caucus. If Labour withdrew its support, the United Government could not last five minutes, and Labour itself is never tired of “rubbing it in" that this is the position. Before Mr. Forbes and Mr. Donald speak of the “old gag.” they should look at recent copies of the official Labour organ, “The Worker.” There they would learn how their masters openly boast that they are the power behind the throne, and how they present to their followers the picture of the United Government as a troupe of marionettes with Labour making the little figures dance. LIBERAL BUT NOT LABOURFERTILISERS Sir,— In reply to your rather more mild condemnation of the use of Belgian basic slags by New Zealand farmers generally, I wish to enlighten both the writer of this unfortunate article, and his business adviser, with a few more “indisputable facts.” Since the introduction of the “open hearth” treatment, used in steel manufacture, the quality of slags has considerably suffered, chiefly in England, and we find today that Belgium is the only country where slag containing P2 05 of high citric solubility can be obtained. Hence the wisdom displayed by our local farmers in buying 31.778 tons during the autumn quarter of 1929. Your business friend doubts my knowledge of fertilisers, and asks if my statements can be supported by accurately recorded experiments, or notable authorities. He ‘'quibbles” by stipulating New Zealand-made superphosphate, when he must know that most of the trials made in this country are far from comprehensive, and the boosted ones are conducted by those engaged m “super” manufacture. The following extracts from authorities of world-wide repute may convince both your correspondents that they have been "barking up the wrong tree, and make them realise the elementary nature of their knowledge of this big subject. “Cambridge Agri(Continued in next column.)

cultural Monographs.” a r*?~ogni«i standard work by G. Soot-Robert**, D So-. K.1.C., who at one time was head of the Chemistry Derartment Institute of Agriculture, Chelmsford and chief agricultural analyst for North** Ireland (with a preface by St Edward J. Russell. D.Sc.. F.R.S., Director of Rothamsted experimental station, com- i plimenting him on his great and comprehensive experimental work), contains the following: To and Munro w*» owe discovery in l?« 5 *h*t. 7? b-* ~ slag se ground to* a. fine powder, it has a v«y considerable fertilising value. Tbeir experiments were followed by many otb* (including the now-class:' experiment* at Cockle Park), which were commenced in IS9*> by Professor Somerville, and subsequently continued and developed Sir T. H. Middleton and Profess**" p. A. Gilchrist. It is from the Cockle Pal* experiments that most of our information concerning the practical use of basic slag has been derived These experiments continued over a period of years, do more than show that basic slag has a high fertilising value. Tbef demonstrate that, under the conditio l * at Cockle Park, basic per unit « phosphoric acid is more effective tha* superphosphate. a result which wa* subsequently confirmed by tria"' at S«rington. Cransley, Hatly. 'and Ye’.dhaaL a. McCullough. Grey Lynn.

[The business man referred to ?n o* correspondent's letter, to whom the subject was referred, stated tbit the original objection was not confined to sl«6 the importations referred to also including 12,444 tons of phosphates ther tba* slag. He stated, also, that unforrmiw the bulk of the slag imported dTS net measure up to the correspondent's description of high F2 05 content and solubility. Low grade slags of k>w bility are imported freei> . In regard the trials, he states that there is n® ’quibbling ” The trials ‘aid down W the Department of Agriculture are acknowledged to be the most elaborate their kind, not excepting -he Rothamstead and Cockle I’ark ment?. Of “boosted” trials conducts by those engaged in superphosphate facture he knows nothing. He stated that the quotation referred ™ does not in any way alter the ’acts stated in The Sun previously. The tv" ti Using value of high-grade was in question. The points to bear iaJWt here are that the slag used by Pr. Robertson was the open-hearth grade soluble slag, while the was of a very much lower grade tbj* that manufactured in New Zealand. English “super,” he points out. is r* l . at 30 per cent., and the New at 44/40 per cent. The position in Zealand is reversed in that comP*JT tively little high-grade soluble slag ported, whereas high-grade “super” is manufactured locally. rightly claimed, the advantage is all the locally manufactured article. 1 , article appearing in The Sun stated New Zealand farmers could purchase . better advantage by buying New made superphosphates, and that the st»* and other rock phosphates imported tn' foreign countries could be done witno to the advantage of all statement, he claims, that ha* jufrbeen proved wrong. corresw* 0 ® ence is now closed.—Ed.. The Sun-J