DAIRY INDUSTRY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 148, 25 June 1931, Page 8

DAIRY INDUSTRY

NATIONAL CONFERENCE SPEECH BY THE MINISTER. AID IN FERTILISER PURCHASE. I Per Press Association. ] NEW PLYMOUTH, June 24. The encouragement given to tho Gov m-nnieut to farmers to keep fertilising tho land in order to obtain greater production, was the subject of reference by the Alinister of Agriculture in an address at tho National Dairy confer once. Concession rates had been provided in recent years, he said, for the car riage of lime and fertilisers. In 1914 the amount of fertilisers imported into the Dominion was 100,000 tons, but in 1930 it was 335,276 tons. The enormous increase was, to a large extent, made possible by the Government’s assistance, for between 1926-27 and 1930-31 tho Government £337,604 in the carriage of fertilisers. Between 1924-25 and the present day the carriage of lime had necessitated tho expenditure of £202,000 from the consolidated fund. Tho Government, however, could not do anything, and to take money out of the consolidated fund was merely one way of taking it indirectly out of the farmers’ pockets. £lOO.OOO had been provided recently for the purchase of fertilisers. At first it had been decided to administer this fund through the Rural Intermediate Credits Board, but it was found there was not sufficient elasticity and the system had been altered until now it was satisfactory. Afany 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. tho Government earnestly entreated farmers to concentrate on making use of the opportunity and keeping pastures well fertilised, with the object of increasing production. Mr Hoover’s suggestion to suspend for one year the international war debt payments should be of immense value in relieving the present serious economic positions, said the Alinister, 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 disturbing 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 18600 tons in 1927-28 to 18108 tons in 1928-29, and to 10631 tons in 1929 30, but recently it seemed that a determined effort was being made to flood the British market, ami there was a fear that exportations to Britain from Russia might increase. If this occurred and butter was put on the market at a low price, tho position would be serious for New Zealand. Tho 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 realising that if the entity of the Empire was to bo preserved, a tariff must be imposed against foreign competition.