FERTILITY IN THE NORTH

Feilding Star, Volume 9, Issue 3848, 3 October 1932, Page 8

FERTILITY IN THE NORTH

GREAT BUTTER OUTPUT SCOPE FOR DEVELOPMENT GAP IN RAILWAY CRITICISED The wonderful fertility of North Auckland was ' emphasised by the Hon. C- J- Carrington (Auckland) when speaking in the Addresg-in-Reply debate in the Legislative. Council. The Hon. J. C. Coates, when addressing northern farmers in 1927 urged them to meet the lower world’s parity .of prices of butter, by increased production, said Mr Carrington. The farmers took this advice and for the season 1931-32 the Northern Wairoa district produced 4000 tong of butter, an increase of 500 tons over the preceding- season, representing an increase in value of £40,000. The total payout from two factories in this district in butterfat. payments, dividends and bonus, was, in round figures, .£350,000, and for the first’two months of the present season an increase of 36 per cent, over last season had been obtained. The increase for the year over the whole of North Auckland was roughly ,£IOO,OOO, in spite of the decrease in- price of butter. “When we consider that the total return in sterling in Northern V airoa at njd per lb. butterfat almost equals that of a year or so ago at i6d per lh., one realises the great increase ,in_ butter production in North Auckland,” continued Mr Carrington. “Two million acre's still await development in North Auckland. In fare of this it seems extraordinary that the Railway Board has taken no kownn action to recoin mend the closing of the small gap in the line of railway leading from Donelly’s Crossing in Lower llokianga, to the Wellington wharves. Visitors to this proved fertile portion of Dominion were astounded to find that uncompleted but almost completed portion of the line necessitates the transfer of passengers and goods into motor vehicles by road from Tangowahino to Dargaville alongside an almost completed railway.”