MORE PRODUCTION

Southland Times, Issue 21429, 25 June 1931, Page 8

MORE PRODUCTION

GOVERNMENT’S AID CARRIAGE OF LIME AND FERTILIZERS SPEECH BY MINISTER (Per United Press Association!.) New Plymouth, June 24. The encouragement given by the Government to farmers to keep fertilizing land in order to obtain greater production was the subject of reference by the Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. A. J. Murdoch, in an address at the National Dairy Conference. Concession rates had been provided in recent years, he said, for the carriage of lime and fertilizers. In 1914 the amount of fertilizers imported into the Dominion was 100,009 tons, but in 1920 it was 335,176 tons. The enormous increase was to a large extent made possible by the Government’s assistance, for between 1926-27 and 1930-31 the Government had expended £337,604 in the carriage of fertilizers. Between 1924-25 and the present day the carriage of lime had necessitated the expenditure of £202,000 from the Consolidated Fund. The Government, however, could not do everything and to take money out of the Consolidated Fund was merely one way of taking it indirectly out of the farmers’ pockets. The sum of £lOO,OOO had been provided recently for the purchase of fertilizers. At first it had been decided to administer this fund through the Rural Intermediate Credits Board, but it was found that there was not sufficient elasticity and the system had been altered until now it was satisfactory. Many inquiries had been made and considerable assistance had been given. It was a step in the right direction, although the facilities available were apparently not as widely known as they ought to be. In return for its £lOO,OOO, the Government earnestly entreated farmers to concentrate on making use of the opportunity and keeping pastures well fertilized with the object of increasing production. Mr Hoover’s suggestion to suspend for one year international war debts payments thould be of immense value in relieving the present serious economic position, said the Minister, and it might be that war debts might soon be wiped out altogether. Of New Zealand’s total production of butter and cheese only 20 per cent, of butter and 4 per cent, of cheese was consumed in the Dominion and the remainder had to be sold in the markets of the rest of the world. A •isturbing factor was the dumping on the British market of Russian butter at a low price. As a matter of fact Russian exports of butter to Britain dropped from 18,600 tons in 1927-28 to 18,108 tons in 1928-29 and to 10,631 tons in 192930, but recently it seemed that a determined effort was being made to flood the British market and there was a fear that the exportations to Britain from Russia might increase. If this occurred and butter was put on the market at a low price the position would be serious for New Zealand. The Russian competition could be countered in only one way—by a British tariff against it. 'This tariff was not likely to be imposed at present, but it might come in the near future. Britain was realizing- that if the entity of the Empire was to be preserved a tariff must be imposed against foreign competition.