PHOSPHATE ROCK.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1921, Page 7

PHOSPHATE ROCK.

ERECTION OF CRUSHING PLANTS. SOMETHING ABOUT MIDDLEMEN. “Will the Minister of Agriculture assist farmers* co-operative companies financially, through one of the lending departments, in erecting crushing plants to treat raw phosphate rock?” asked Mr. V. H. Reed (Bay of Islands) in the House. “Manufacturers,” he said, “are obtaining phosphate rock at £3 17s per ton and selling the crushed material at £7 15«, which puts the cost of crushing at nearly £4 per ton, whereas 10s per ton should suffice.” The Hon. W. Nosworthy replied: “No power exists for any Government lending department to advance money for the purpose stated, and any such arrangement would have to be first eanetioned by Parliament. The crushing plants now in operation at Auckland, Dunedin, and Bluff, and in course of erection in. Canterbury, could meet requirements for some time to come, and it is most sincerely hoped that they will meet the position as regards selling prices for ground phosphate rock. The Government is at present going into the matter from more points of view than one, and the' suggestion conveyed by the honorable member’s question will receive most careful consideration, seeing that it is only right that farmers should be enabled to purchase all the ground phosphate they require at a proper price after allowing for necessary charges on a fair and reasonable basis. Ten shillings per ton is too small a price to allow to cover all charges from the ship’s side. The cost of sacks alone amounts to from 10s to Ils per ton.”

Sir George Hunter (Waipawa) urged that the supply of cheap fertiliser was a matter Of very great importance to the farming community. It was important to the whole country as a means of increasing production. If the farmers were to be successful, it was essential that they should obtain cheaper fertilisers and manures. The farmers had hoped, when the Government acquired an interest in Nauru Island, that within a short time they would obtain a benefit. One of the dangers that he foresaw now was the intervention of the middlemen. The middlemen were one of the greatest troubles that the farmers had to fare. Sir George Hunter urged that if the Government could see its way to supply the phosphate in a fertilising form the farmers would be greatly benefited. He knew that the Minister of Agriculture was in sympathy with the farmers in this matter, and would do everything in his power to see that cheap manures were supplied direct to the farmers. The member for Waipawa added that he hoped the Government would take steps to ascertain and develop the deposits of lime in the North Island. The farmers often faced great difficulty in the fertilising of nnploughable land, and cheap lime would help them to overcome this difficulty.