FERTILISER RATIONS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 199, 5 January 1942, Page 2

FERTILISER RATIONS

INEQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION AUCKLAND REPRESENTATIONS At last Executive meeting of the Auckland Farmers' Union lengthy correspondence on the subject of fertiliser rationing was dealt with. At a previous meeting the local Executive had suggested to the Dominion Executive a rationing scheme devised to provide a limit beyond which no farmer should fall, j lewt of super per acre of previously top-dressed land being suggested. Provision, it was contended, should also be made for cases of hardship. The 40 per cent scheme that operated last season was extremely unpopular throughout the whole of the Auckland Province, and there Is a very general agreement among farmers that some better basis, of rationing should be found. With the entry of Japan into the war this question has become more important than ever. The view taken by the Auckland Executive of the Union is that by far the most important consideration is the preservation of the pasture lands of the Dominion in such condition as to allow them to. be brought back easily into -full production. One of the strongest objections against tke 40 per cent rationing scheme was that it cut down allowances to farmers on lightly lop-dressed hill country to such an extent as to endanger their productivity for the future. There are thousands o>f acres of rich country I hat could be left un-top-dresesd tor a period without any deterioration of the land. The hill country farms are an essential part of the structure of the sheep industry. The principle the Auckland Executive of ' the Union wishes, to see ustabilshed is that it is better to accept a temporary loss of production, or a failure to increase production at all costs, than to allow farming capital, as represented by land, to depreciate seriously. In regard to bone-dust and other phosphatic manures, it was suggested that these should be added to the general phosphatic pool and rationed as part of that pool, on the basis of their phosphatic content.