FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 July 1917, Page 6

FARM AND DAIRY.

FARMERS AND FERTILISERS. AN ATTRACTIVE PROPOSITION. . | On several occasions this session country members in tlie House have bewailed the soaring- prices of fertilisers and the difficulty of obtaining' crop stimulants at reasonable rates, remarks the Auckland Star's special correspondent. Mr. A. Harris (member for Waitemaia) referred to the matter the other night, and pointed an exceedingly easy way out of the difficulty for farmers, and at the same time an opportunity for Austra-* lia and New Zealand to profit considerably at the expense of the Hun. The member explained that midway between the Marshal and Solomon Islands lie Nauru or Pleasant Island and Ocean Island, two of the most valuable spots on the face of the earth. The islands are of coral formation, and for untold ages have been the rookeries of sea birds winch have deposited guano that has impregnated the limestone, forming phosphate rock forty feet in depth. The estimated (juantity of phosphates is upwards of "100,(100,000 tons, and the value is estimated to rival the famous nitrate fields of Chile. In point of fact, slid Mr. Harris, this Nauru and Ocean Island phosphate possesses £5 per cent, material value as against 27 per cent, for the best -English, and 1-2 per cent, for New Zealand phosphates—in other words, one ton of this island iphosphate is equal in mammal value to three tons of the hesb English and seven tons of the New Zealand -product. Before the war these islands belonged to Germany, and Japanese steamers took away weekly cargoes of the rock to Japan, where it was manufactured into superphosphates, and large quantities we; ft imported by New Zealand freezing companies to mix with their blood manures. The Japanese ,paid one mark (approximately a shffing) per ton royalty to the German Government for the rock and one mark to native wwners. A Jew davs after war .was declared the Union Jack was hoisted over the islands by the British agent at Christ-mas Island, and Mr. Harris urges that representations should now he made to the Imperial Government for the transfer of these islands to Australia and New Zealand, thus serving the double purpose of helping to keep Germany out of the Pacific and of adding considerably to the .wealth of the Commonwealth and 'Dominion. He points out, moreover, lhat it would he possible for the New Zealand Government to bring phosphate from Nauru and Ocean Islands, manufacture it into the highest quality superphosphate, and sell it to farmers at half the pre-war prices. ,