State farming profit up $4M

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 2

State farming profit up $4M

The Lands and Survey Department made a vastly increased profit from its farms in the 1976-77 year — a net profit of 56.6 M, compared with $2.7M the previous year. This profit was revealed to Commissioners of Crown Lands and the department’s superintendents of land development, at their annual conference in Wellington. However, the DirectorGeneral of Agriculture (Mr N. S. Coad) told the conference he was anticipating that the 1977-78 returns, to June 30, would be affected by climatic conditions, increasing costs and lower prices. The department’s fields 'director (Mr T. D. Mackenzie) said that the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young) had asked the department to become more involved in deer farming and preliminary investigations had been made.

It was clear that to buy deer at today’s prices, and even to capture them by helicopter, would be uneconomic for the Crown, which had to rely on employees, said Mr Mackenzie. This was quite different from the personal involvement of a property owner. However, trapping deer would offer scope for the department, and any of the 12 land districts able to start out in this way should do so. The meeting was told that the 55 Crown land units settled in the last year was the highest number since 1966-67. The department had succeeded in settling this number or more units only five times in the last 18 years.