NOTHING TO RETRACT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19821, 24 December 1938, Page 11

NOTHING TO RETRACT

TUNG OIL COMMENT MINISTER EMPHATIC DUTY, TO THE PUBLIC (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A statement that he had no intention of entering into a controversy concerning the tung oil plantations, referred to in this month's issue of the Journal of Agriculture, was made by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lee Martin, in an interview yesterday. He said that ho had satisfied himself that the report submitted by the departmental officers and published in the journal was a correct statement of the position. In a telegram to the managing director of the New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation, Mr. J. E. Ray, the Minister said he had nothing to retract or modify. He had a duty to the investing public.

STATEMENTS RESENTED

CLAIMED TO RE UNFAIR

Strong exception was taken by Mr. J. E. Ray. managing director of Now Zealand Tung Oil Corporation, to statements quoted from the Deccmb'V issue of the Journal of Agriculture.

"Statements based on the positio i two yews ago are obviously unfair," he said. The article objected to included :> summary stating that in 10 tung (•'! plantations in the Dominion there wcv 55 acres of apparently satisfactory trees, 733 acres of unsatisfactory trc?and 3700 acres of worthless, dead a. i dying trees. The plantations of M \ Ray's company were credited ivi :i having 37 acres of apparently sat - factory trees, 585 acres of ihisatisf-r----lory trees and 1551 acres of worthless, dead and dying trees. Commenting on this, Mr. Ray ; • sorted that his company, which w: the first in the field in this industry. had now at least 200 acres of tre •■• well grown and bearing. Antiquated Report ••The report is antiquated, and v: • vill press some oil on the place with n ♦ho next six months." he said. "Wa are on the verge of purchasing and erecting a pressing plant to hand 1 " this year's crop. Laboratory te.-'-'■nadc last year clearly indicated flu l , the oil we produced in Kaikohe wc in a par with the best tung oil grow

'n the rTnited Stales of America, bo" 1 as to oil percentage and quality." I<i protest against the report appea<ing in the Journal of Agriculture, tl;v New Zealand Tung Oil Corporator forwarded a telegram to the Minister of Industries and Commerce, tha Hon. D. G. Sullivan, and to the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. W. Lcj Martin.

Mr. Ray said his company's tre~; were grown from seed brought from Florida, and from several hundrc.'. budded slocks, which had all grow;.. Thev had raised trees from their own seed and this New Zealand acclimrUsed stock bade fair to surpass m srrowth anvthing thev had had fro'' l Florida. They had 2500 acres of treein various stages of growth, and prospering best where the shelter bell were most developed. Their shelteSelts extended to a length of 15G mile-. Photographs shown by Mr. Rav ind ; - cated thai; some of the tung oil treehad now reached a height of aboiu 14ft

"We have a substantial reserve be hind us to see this job through," sa ; ' Mr. Ray, "and we are quite convince.' in our own minds thai wo will finish h We are not selling share 'bonds, an' have not been doing so for the past 3' months."' Minister's Visit Reference to the official inquiry inline s<"lo of tung oil plantations v. New Zealand wns made by the Mini' tor of Agriculture in an inter view. He said that he ha< himself inspected these plants tions p'oouf seven months aso, and aa result of the unfavourable impressior he gained from that visit arrangementhad been made for a proper survey bv the Department of Agricvilture. whie had had the collaboration of the Do oartmeat of Scientific and Industna 1 Research in making the investigation.

"For a semi-official publication such ns the Journal of Agriculture to pub' lis-h a report bised upon wrong conclusions reached almost two years age by investigators inexperienced in thr practice of arboriculture is most unfair," said Professor H. H. Corbin adviser to the New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation. He was quite sure, he said, that only one investigation had ever been made of the New Zealand Tung Oil Corporation's properties and groves, and it had beer quite obvious even then that the investigators had formed some wrong opinions, as ho had pointed out in a fairly comprehensive memorandum tc members of the research council of th? Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in September of las* year. "Genuine progress has been made toward establishing the new industry," he said, "and at a time when it ha' reached' a stage of having a satisfactory proportion of its groves bearing nrolideally it is most unfair to be sunjected to what it tantamount to a general indictment based on entirely unsound premises."