TUNG OIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23227, 22 December 1938, Page 14

TUNG OIL

COMPANY'S PROTEST PLANTATIONS REPORT ANTIQUATED AND UNFAIR STATEMENT BY DIRECTOR Strong exception was taken yesterday by Mr. J. E. Ray, managing director of. the Nsw Zealand Tung Oil Coiporation. to a telegram from Wellington published in the Herald yesterday qupting the December issue of the Journal of Agriculture. "Statements hnserl on .the position two years ago lire obviously unfair, he said. Tlie article objected to included a summary stating that in 10 tung oil plantations in tho Dominion there were s~> acres of apparently satisfactory -trees, 733 acres of unsatisfactory trees, and 3760 acres of worthless, dead and dying trees. The plantations of Mr. Ray's company were credited with having 37 acres of apparently satisfactory trees, 585 acres of unsatisfactory trees, and 1551 acres of worthless, dead and dying trees. Results of Tests Commenting on this, Mr. Rny asserted that his company, which was first in the field in this industry, has now at least 200 acres of trees well grown and bearing. "The report is antiquated, and we will press some oil on the place within the next six months," he said. "We are on the verge of purchasing and erecting a pressing plant to handle this year's crop. Laboratory tests made last year clearly indicated that the oil we produced at Kaikolie was on a par with the best tung oil grown in the United States, both as to oil percentage and quality." In protest against the report appearing in the Journal of Agriculture, the New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation has forwarded the following telegram to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, .the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, and to the Minister of Agriculture, tho Hon. \V. Lee Martin:— "Incorrect and Damaging" "A prominent article on tung oil has appeared in the editorial page in this morning's Hebald, although reported as a precis of an articlo in a journal published under the aegis of the Gorernment, the original of which has not yet been published in Auckland. The report, in so far as the New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation, Limited, and its two affiliated companies are concerned, is both incorrect and damaging; and does not in any way represent the conditions of our plantations to-day. ...

"In December, 1936, and February and March, 1937, on the invitation of our companies; an officer of the Department of Scientific and' Industrial Research visited our plantations. If any further visits or investigations have been made they have been without ' our. knowledge or consent, either direct or indirect, and consequently could not be complete or authoritative. "The companies from their inception and for their own purposes have had regular reports as to the condition of the plantations. "Within the past three months, being the first possible fruiting season, they have had close inspections and reports prepared by both their own officers and competent independent experts. These reports indicate that there are now on the company's own plantations a far greater area of trees in actual bearing than the report states to be as 'apparently satisfactory' for tho whole of New Zealand —and further large areas, not yet in bearing, are in good condition. Promising Undertaking "The corporation, after one year's experiment, withdrew from Kaukapakapa six years ago, and since that time has not "operated in that district. It never has nad any plantation at Wa»papa. The release of such a misleading and erroneous report which can do incalculable harm to a bona-fide and promising undertaking appears inconsistent with the well-known and ofteh-repeatfed need of the development of self-sustaining industry in New Zealand." Mr. Ray said that his company's trees were grown from seed brought from Florida and from several hundred budded stocks, which had all grown. They had raised trees from their own seed, and this New Zealandacclimatised stock bade fair to surpass in growth 'anything they had had from Florida. They had 2500 acres of trees in various stages of growth, and prospering best where the shelter belts were most developed. Their shelter belts extended to a length of 156 miles. Photographs shown by Mr. Ray indicated that some of the tung oil trees Itad now reached a height of about 14ft.

"We have a substantial cash reserve behind us to see this job through," said Mr. Ray, "and we are quite convinced in our own minds that we will finish it. We arc not selling shares or bonds and have not been doing so for the past 18 months." *