IMPORTATION OF TRACTORS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25638, 29 October 1948, Page 9

IMPORTATION OF TRACTORS

LIST OF TYPES AND NUMBERS

More than 1800 American farm tractors, costing more than 3,000,000 dollars, will be made available to farmers in New Zealand as the result of an allocation of 5,500.000 dollars released by the Government, which has agreed to the request made by the Aid for Britain National Council that dollars be made available, to buy machinery to assist primary production. This was announced by the chairman of the council (Mr F. P. Walsh).

The Government set up a committee to investigate the extent to which suitable tractors and farm machinery were available from Great Britain, and to what extent it would be necessary to call on dollar funds to supplement any supplies of these implements from Great Britain. The committee was in complete agreement with the farmers’ representatives on imports from the dollar area as well as the sterling, and reported this to the Government, said Mr Walsh.

The Acting-Prime Minister (Mr Nash) had accepted the committee’s recommendations and intended to implement them immediately, he said. Liberal licences for imports of British-made tractors would also be made available. This would mean that about 5500 British tractors might be imported. Their cost would be about £2.500.000.

Dollars will be made available in the next licensing period for imports of specific types of American tractors as follows:—1 plough wheel, 751, 699,565 dollars; 3/4 plough wheel, 500, 835.570 dollars; 4/5 plough wheel, 160, 302.908 dollars; 2 plough crawler, 55, 78,660 dollars; 3 plough crawler, 189, 585.572 dollars; 4 plough crawler. 149, 644.620 dollars; totals, 1804; 3,146,895 dollars.