FERTILISER SUBSIDY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 5

FERTILISER SUBSIDY

DAIRY BOARD ATTITUDE EXPLAINED (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 30. The attitude of the Dairy Board to the question of subsidising the importation of manufactured phosphatic fertiliser was explained by the chairman of the board (Mr W. E. Hale) at, the annual meeting of the board to-day. “We have been assisting this class of fertiliser during the last two years with a subsidy from our pool account of approximately £3 a ton in the first year and £2 a ton last season, but because we know we are penalised every time we agree to a subsidy out of our savings, instead of having the proper cost included in our produce prices. Dairy Board made it clear it could not agree to any further extension of this direct subsidy on fertiliser.” Mr Hale added that as primary producers they did not favour a system of holding costs by means of subsidy. After reviewing the steps taken unsuccessfully by the industry for the establishment of a surcharge on superphosphate, Mr Hale said:' “If a serious shortage of phosphatic fertilisers appears to be developing, then action by the Government and the primary producer organisations will have to be taken. We cannot allow the country to go short of urgently-needed phosphates, but we will seek our remedy in measures likely to be in the longterm rather than the short-term interests of our agriculture.”