FERTILISER PRICE INCREASE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23587, 14 March 1942, Page 6

FERTILISER PRICE INCREASE

WHEATGROWERS WILL NOT BE AFFECTED

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, March 13. “The assumption by the North Canterbury Primary Production Council that the price of fertiliser supplies to wheatgrowers was to be increased by 2s to' 3s a ton was not only premature but also incorrect,” stated the Minister for Marketing (the Hon. J. G. Barclay). Tlie intention of the Government, he explained, was to maintain fertiliser prices in the South Island on the same basis as that recently adopted for the North Island. That was the fixation of an inclusive “sacks in” price. If this course was adopted it was likely that the increase fn price to the South Island would be about 2s a ton above last year’s rates. Wheatgrowers, hpwever, would not be affected, as in their case the increase would be absorbed by jhe Government. Other forms of primary production in the south would have to pay for supplies on the same basis as similar producers in the north.

“The adoption of the ‘sacks in’ basis for the North Island has been favourably received by the farming community,” stated the Minister, “and will no doubt be similarly accepted by producers in the south. “In view of the fact that the Government had made an urgent appeal in the vital interests of the Dominion for a maximum acreage to be sown in wheat it was only fair that wheat producers should receive every possible encouragement.”