SUGGESTED INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22975, 1 March 1938, Page 7

SUGGESTED INDUSTRY

SUGAR-BEET GROWING CLAIMS OF HAWKE'S BAY HIGH YIELD OF ROOTS A move to establish a sugar-beet industry in Hawke's Bay is suggested in an article published in the first issue of the Hawke's Bay Daily -Mail on Saturday. It is claimed that analytical tests made by the Department of Industrial and Scientific Research havo proved beyond doubt that the sugar content of sugar-beet grown in Hawke's Bay easily surpasses that of any country in the world, and that the province has an unanswerable claim to be made the centre of the sugar industry contemplated by the Government. "Results which have been achieved through experimental plots in Napier and Hastings are so convincing," the paper states, "that promoters of the sugar-beet project havo firm hopes that when final decisions are made in May, tiio Government will choose Hawke's Bay for the establishment of one or more factories to extract crude sugar and a refinery for its treatment." It is pointed out that so fur the matter has been handled by three Government departments and that details of costs of machinery and equipment have been examined by the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash. The probable procedure if the industry is established. it is suggested, will be to build factories and a refinery in the province showing the best tonnage and content results and thus keeping costs All farmers throughout the Dominion would probablv be entitled to grow the sugar-beet under three or five-year contracts with the Government, and it is not thought likely that any separate areas will be administered by the Government. Figures compiled by Mr. \V. GreenIng, of Havelock North, who was the first to introduce and raise sugar-beet in the Dominion and whose experiments led to the question of the establishment of an industry being raised in Parliament, place Hawke's Bay as first in the world for economical growing and sugar content. The figures show that the sugar content per root yield is approximately i2O per cent, as compared with the English yield of 17.81 per cent. The weight of sugar yield per acre in Hawke's Bay is 8.7 tons, compared with 4 tons per acre in Great Britain, the root yield per acre being 43 tons, as against Britain's 23 tons. Although the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan was approached by Mr. L. L. Cullcn, M.P. for Hawke's Bay, in De- ' comber, it is statofl tliftt no decision i is likely to be made before May.

STOCK DISEASE BURDEN DOMINION FARMERS' LOSSES SUM OF £5,000,000 [BY TELEGRAPH' —OWN CORRESPONDENT] WELLINGTON, Monday "Losses to farmers of not loss than £5.000.000 annually arc in New Zealand through disease alone," said the president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, Mr. W. W. Mulholland, when he addressed farmers who attended the annual fiekl day of the Hutt-Makara branch of the Farmers' Union at the Government | veterinarv laboratories, \N allace\ ille. "Can the farming industry stand ! this'loss and compete on an equal foot- ' ins with other countries who are not ' faced with the heavy transport and ! other costs that New Zealrnd has to inoct?" asked i 14 was possible to save a considerable portion of this £5,00G.000 disease loss, continued Mr. Mulholland. Jhe responsibility for attacking disease was not so miSch on the Department of Agriculture as on the farmers, who had not d»ne all they should. 1 hey should nor leave the responsibility solelv to the department, but each : farmer should pull his weight and get after that £5.000,000.