More, Cheaper Manure Needed In Northland

Northern Advocate, 26 May 1949, Page 2

More , Cheaper Manure Needed In Northland

“MORE and cheaper manure in the North was one of the main essentials to increased production, said the chairman of the No. 1 Ward of the Counties’ Association (Mr A. C. Yarborough, Hokianga), when speaking at the ward meeting in Whangarei yesterday on the forthcoming conference in Kaikohe to discuss Northland’s idle lands. As the conference had first been proposed by the Whangarei County Council the. ward decided to ask it to frame an agenda and draw up proposed resolutions.

Among those to be represented at the conference will be Federated Farmers, dairy companies, and county councils. Each council will arrange for the presentation of its views, together with the amount of idle land within its area. The high cost of fertiliser, materials and farm labour was preventing the full development of the land, Mr Yarborough said. During one year it had cost him £2OOO for manure. He had'been able to spend this large amount only because it had been deducted from his income. It was regarded as maintenance, and so reduced the tax payable. Many people had good land, but because they could not afford to pay the high costs, production suffered, he said. He knew of one young man who had employed a sharemilker until he decided that he would be just as well off if he sold 30 cows and dispensed

with any assistance, and he accordingly did so. “Lack of incentive is bringing about the attitude of ‘What’s the good of producing extra? No use!’” Mr Yarborough maintained. GREAT POSSIBILITIES Mr W. M. Fraser (Whangarei) said that there were immense possibilities for land development in Northland, more than in any other place in the Southern Hemisphere. If each county put up its own case it would be far better than one case only. Until more and cheaper fertiliser was available the land could not be developed fully. Freight costs also contributed to the raising of farmers’ costs, and this pointed to the need of a fertiliser works in Northland. “In this country we have many men on the land who have no money,” Mr Fraser went on. “If a fund could be established, at nothing per cent, for five or ten years, it would result in a great increase in production from these farms.” “The best way to provide roads is first to increase production, and then the land will be able to contribute a rate which will allow a good road to be built,” said Mr J. Morrison (Whangarei). '