PHOSPHATES SUBSIDY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 255, 27 September 1932, Page 7

PHOSPHATES SUBSIDY.

MINISTER’S COMMENT. (By Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 27. “It would appear that the policy of subsidising superphosphate was sound because it induced the farmers to use so much more of it ; with a consequent increase in production,” said Hon. C. E. Macmillan, Minister of Agriculture, this morning, when referring to. the completion of the arrangement under which New Zealand secured a reduction in the price of 'the raw product which would mean a gain to the Consolidated Fund of £16,000. Mr Macmillan said that the reduction applied to the current financial year and it would help to offset the £165,000 which represented the cost of the subsidy of 11s on every ton of superphosphate manufactured and sold in New Zealand. The State subsidy was further subsidised by the manufacturers and merchants.

As exemplifying the increased use of superphosphate, the Minister said that the deliveries from Nauru and Ocean Islands for this year practically reached those of the peak year of 1930. For the year ended June 30, 1930, the deliveries in New Zealand totalled 176,143 tons; for 1931, 132,130 tons; and the estimate for 1932 was 168,878 tons. Since the granting of the. subsidy there had been a very material increase in the demand for phosphate and the ability of tho island to give increased supplies, due partially to the establishment of an up-to-date cantilever loading appliance at Nauru, which enabled the work to be carried "out most expeditiously.