NEW ZEALAND POTASH.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1917, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND POTASH.

J3UT NO PERLMUTTEPi. London, Oeecmbor X. In London public interest i.i the appointment of a Food Dictator 13 equalled by that in suggestions of all kinds for increasing productivity of tne soil. The demand is insistent for a I've nend to the Department of Agriculture here. Hot favorite as new head is Mr. Christopher Tumor, whoso name is pretty well suggested by authoritative papers as being a man who really knows all Unit the .lead of i. Department cf Agriculture ought to know. Commenting oil Ins claims, writes a correspondent, I discovered tl'at Mr. Tumor himself is convinced that Sir Thomas Mackenize is just the man for the position, a man who has b?en a successful .Minister of Agriculture in a young and progressive Dominion. On linking enquiries of the High Commissioner, I found that Sir Thomas expressed himself as willing and ghd to give any aid to Mr. Turnar us head of the Home Agricultural Department. On being questioned as to»the position, tliu High Commissionei said that it is not that New Zealand is so very advanced as that the Old Country is so behind. He instances the shocking wiste of good land, and surprisingly enough quoted Lincolnshire' as ah example. There lately lie had been shooting over land that would have made, excellent arable land. What giass there was was in a shocking condition. Sir Thomas told the owner cf ii that had lie as Minister of Agriculture seen such badly kept land lie {the Minister for Agriculture) would have put it into good condition—at l.he owner's expense! The extraordinary th'mj, was that in his private grounds this sair.n landlord had turf it.was a pleasure to see. and Sii Thomas pointed <mt the need for keeping as high a jta»Jard in the fieids as at home for mere luxury. The discussion in the Times and elsewhere about Now Zealand supplies oi potash continues to evoke the keenest interest in wider circles than ihe purely agricultural. The High Commissioner, in a letter to the Times, quoted about Otagci mica schist as containing "that which might reduce the whale of tins Stassl'urt mines to the imporr.aaoo relatively of a bottle of potash on a druggist's shelf." Interviewed by the correspondent, Sir Thomas expressed his firm bc-lief that in spite of the insolubility of New Zealand schist alleged against it, its value ivas assured, citing in support of this the undoubted productivity of Otago orchards which, as he explained to one who knew not Otago, grew from what appeared to be fields of broken road metal! Then, too, the High Commisisoncr's personal testimony is backed up by Mr. Wyndham K. Dunstan, Director of tha Imperil Institute, \vhosc knowledge of . the chemical resources of the Empire is of th'j widest. He says: ''The subject is fully explained and discussed ; n a pamphlet entitled 'The World's Supply of Potash,' which was issued by the Imperial Institute last year, and attention is tncre drawn to the suggestion that powdered minerals containing insoluble, potasl; might be applied direct to soils poor in this -constituent since it is probable that the potash will be slowly liberated under suitable conditions in a soluble form and thus Become available for plant food. It this suggestion should prove io be successful rnith mica scnist and other similar minerals, agriculture in New Zealand, as >vell as :n othex countries, -would not in future be entirely dependent on supplies of potash pro- | cured from Sormany."