PHOSPHATES.

Otaki Mail, 17 August 1928, Page 4

PHOSPHATES.

SHORT OP THE DEMAND.

Mr. Held (Otaki) has asked the Minister of Agricultural, whether there is, in the opinion of his Department, any good ground for the fear, entertained by many agricultural experts, that in the near future the supply of phosphates for New Zealand from ! A T auru Island will fall far short of the increasing demand; and whether, if this is the true position, the Government will negotiate for a revision of the agreement entered into by Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand for allocation of Nauru phosphates, with a view to securing a substantially larger share for the Dominion.' The Hon. Mr. Hawken (Minister of' Agriculture) has replied, there is no reason to fear that the available supplies of phosphate rock at Nauru ami Ocean Islands will not be sufficient in quantity to meet the requirements of New Zealand for many years to come, as it has been estimated that the supplies of rock existing on the two islands i will probably reach at least 100,000,000 tons. The position as to the immediately available supplies is governed by the existing facilities for shipment. At the present time the full capacity of the islands from the point of view of what can be shipped is approximately 550,000 tons per annum, though during the year ended 30th June, 1027, close upon 600,000 tons were shipped. In 1027 a commencement was made in the erection of a new cantilever loadingstage at Nauru Island, together with practically-a complete duplicate equipment of railway lines, drying-sheds, etc. These improvements are expected to be ready for use by the end of next year, and it will then enable the Nauru capacity for output to be increased by approximately 2.10,000 tons per annum. Additional facilities of a similar nature are contemplated at Ocean Island. Notwithstanding this, the Government, in conjunction with His Majesty's Governments in Australia and Great .Britain, have initialed action on the lines of endeavouring to secure further permanent supplies, no that in the event of lengthy periods of bad weather occurring, as sometimes happens at Nauru and Ocean Islands, and preventing shipping operations being carried on during their continuance, no temporary shortage can come about. The honourable member may rest assured that the Government is giving earnest attention to this matter from" the point of view of safeguarding the position in the near future, and for a long period after. As regards the question of the percentage of the Nauru and Ocean Islands output allocated to each of the three partner countries respectively, this has been the subject of discussion, but it has not reached finality largely on account of the fact, that Great Britain is taking none, and the whole of her share has been available for Australian and New Zealand requirements. This question of allocation of out-put, however, will form an important feature of the negotiations regarding additional supplies which are in progress at the present time.