LIME TRANSPORT ASSISTANCE

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25448, 20 March 1948, Page 5

LIME TRANSPORT ASSISTANCE

As is common with any new scheme governed by regulations* full understanding of the Lime Transport Assistance plan appears to be lacking, federated Farmers, at head office in Wellington, is continually receiving queries from farmers, many of whom have a wrong conception of the details involved. The whole scheme is being administered by the department of Agriculture, the federation explains. No cash allowances are made, but the department pays the concessions to the lime suppliers and to the Railway department. They in turn, make corresponding credits to farmers for both the rqil concession and road allowances. Instead, therefore, of making claims, farmers furnish special cartage declarations to their lime suppliers. In the case of road deliveries only, the credit is shown on the farmers’ invoice and he pays only the net amount. Once a farmer files a declaration with his supplier, that form stands for all future orders. No further declarations are necessary. Two declarations, both perfectly simple, are available. No. 1 is for cases in which road delivery follows rail transport. No. 2 is for cases in which delivery is by road only. A farmer carting his own lime by road receives the usual credit of 4d a ton-mile after the first three miles. That credit is shown on his invoice. In other words he is treated the same as an ordinary carrier. The scheme came into operation on January 5. For deliveries on and after November 24, until the crediting system became operative by all lime suppliers, farmers were charged in full. They will, however, receive remittances equal to the rail concessions and road allowances, if they have not already * done so. Farmers claiming these allowances will receive remittances direct from the Department of Agriculture. Where lime spreading contractors also conduct a delivery service, lime suppliers are authorised to rail lime to them at the Lime Transport Assistance rates. The contractors then grant the farmers the road allowance to which they would have been' entitled had they been the consignees of the lime instead of the contractors. The farmer must complete the No. 1 declaration and give it to the contractor at the time when arrangements are made to carry out the work. The contractor claims from the Department of Agriculture for the allowances which he grants on his invoices to farmers. DEMAND FOR CROSSBREDS A recent trend towards the shifting of the wool demand trom Merino qualities to crossbred qualities, noted by the International Wool Secretarial in a survey of the world apparel wool situation for. 1948, is of importance to New Zealand as a crossbred wool-pro-ducing country, says the New Zealand Wool Board. IW.S. opinion is that this trend towards crossbreds will continue. The, survey sums the position up thus: given a world free from major new political or economic crises, and given the success of the European recovery programme, there would appear to be reasonable prospects in 1948' for the maintenance of apparel wool consumption at about its present level, and a consequent modest reduction in stocks. There may also be an intensification of the tendency already noticeable for some shift of demand in favour of crossbred wools, with a further narrowing of the Merino-cross-bred price differential. USE OF IRRIGATION The total amount of water used this season on the Ashburton-Lyndhurst irrigation scheme to tne end of February was 1534 acre-feet on State properties and 4052 acre-feet on private properties, a total 5586 feet against a total of 1378 acre-feet for the whole of the previous year. During February, 1010 acre-feet were used. The monthly report of the Public Works Department on the scheme states:—

“The weather in February has not been particularly favourable for irrigation, as the days have been mostly dull and cloudy with an easterly wind predominating. Rain fell on nine days, totalling 279 points, which figure is slightly above the average for this month. There has been sufficient rain to keep rape and turnips growing vigorously, but dry land pastures have shown very little growth, and even though now they are green have very little bottom in them. Farmers have continued to irrigate and stock the resultant feed with their adult sheep while spelling their dry land in an endeavour to build up some reserve for the winter. It is now noticeable that almost all farmers in the area agree that irrigation is the answer to growing grass, and are only deterred from rapid expansion by the high cost of stock. With the returns from their present flocks so high there appears little incentive to increase their numbers and perhaps be caught with dear sheep should the present prices decline.” WOOL SALE DATES The wool sale dates to the end of the 1947-48 season, with the number of bales allocated to each centre by the New Zealand Wool pisposal Commission are as follows: March 24—Wellington, 25,000. April 3—Christchurch, 27,000. April B—Timaru, 30,000. April 12—Invercargill, 25,000. April 16—Dunedin, 18,000. April 19—Dunedin, 18,000. April 26 Auckland, 20.000. April 29—Auckland, 20,000. May 3—Napier. 18,000. May 6—Napier, 18,000. May 10—Wellington. 20,000. May 13—Wellington. 20.000. May 21—Christchurch, 27,000. May 25—Dunedin, 15,000. May 28—Wanganui, quantity to be determined later. DOG TRIAL DATES Following is a list of dates allotted to the Canterbury collie dog clubs for 1948 trials.— Mackenzie: March 23, 24, and 25. Geraldine:- April 1,2, and 3. Waimate: April 15, 16, and 17. Waikari: April 28, 29, 30, and May 1. Omihi: May 3,4, and 5. Cheviot: May 6,7, and 8. Ellesmere: May 10, 11, and 12. Banks Peninsula: May 13, 14, and 15. Mayfield: May 17, 18, and 19. Loburn: May 20, 21. and 22. Oxford: May 24. 25. and 26. Malvern: May 27, 28 and 29. Glenroy: May 31, June 1 and 3. Methven: June 3,4, and 5. Amuri: June 7,8, and 9. Waiau: June 10, 11, and, 12. EWE AND RAM FAIRS The following are the dates for the 1948 Canterbury ewe and Tam fairs: Oxford ewe fair: Monday, March 22. Tinwald Open Fair: March 23. Coalgate ewe fair: Wednesday, March