SUBSIDY ON FERTILISER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 3

SUBSIDY ON FERTILISER

Increase Being Considered (From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, Dec. 17. The Government is considering a proposal to increase subsidies for the cartage of fertiliser by road to farms. The proposal was put forward at the Government’s request by officers of the Agriculture Department after it had been found that in some districts fanners were switching their fertiliser trade from road to rail transport because the cost to them was less. In some areas, notably the northern King County, this is said to have led to a serious loss of trade to local cartage contractors, some of whom face the prospect of their businesses becoming uneconomic.

As the fertiliser subsidy scheme is not permanent the Government thinks that action should be taken in the interim to prevent them going out of business. It feels that when, at some! future date, the scheme is dropped the demand for their services will be as strong as before the introduction of the scheme. No detailed estimate of the likely cost of the proposal is said to be available because of the number of unpredictable factors. These include the use fanners will make of road transport and the charges made by road operators.

Some urgency is attached to the proposal because of the need to have it working before the flush of the fertiliser season next autumn.