CHEAPER FERTILISER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 243, 14 October 1931, Page 9

CHEAPER FERTILISER

PRICE BELOW PRE-WAR LEVEL BENEFIT TO FARMERS The promised reduction in the price of fertilisers, made possible by the Government’s subsidy of £100,060, took effect as from yesterday. The reduction in the case of superphosphate is 17s 6d a ton, the new price being £3 17s 6d per tou net cash at the works, as against the old price of £4 15s a ton. The rate will be lower, on a unit basis, than the 1914 price, says the New Zealand Herald. The price of basic super will bo brought down from £4 15s to £4, and of ammoniated super from £7 6s 6d to £6 14s 9d. Tho reduction in each case is proportiouato to the superphosphate content. Both the Government and the trade contribute to the reductions. The Government has made itself responsible for lowering the price of Nauru rock phosphate to the manufacturers by £1 a ton. As one ton of rock makes about 1J tons of superphosphate, the reduction equals Us a tou on the cost of tho latter. The remaining 6s 6d i s contributed by tho manufacturing companies and distributors. The new prices will hold good for delivery until Juuo 30, 1932. Tho reduction will be very welcome to the farming community, as it comes just in time to meet the needs of sum mer top-dressing. Tho most significant effect of the reduced price, it is to be hoped, will be an immediate increase in the use of fertilisers, as consumption had fallen by alarming proportions luring the last twelve months, estimated at from 30 to 35 per cent. The price of superphosphate reached its highest peak in 1921, when the 36-38 per cent, grade, a lower grade than the 44-46 per cent, article quoted to-day sold at £8 10s a ton. During the three subsequent years tho price fell steadily until, in 1927, a price war brought the figure, for the higher-grade fertiliser, to £4 2s 6d. Tho price recox • ered in tho next two years and remained at £4 17s 6d until June last, when it was reduced by 2s 6d in consideration of the wage cut. The price movement for superphosphates in Auckland in the last 16 years is as follows, tho figures from 1915 to 1922 applying to tho lower grade, and those from February, 1923, onward applying to the higher grade fertiliser:— 1915, £5 2s 6d a ton; 1916, £5 7s 6d; 1917, £6 10s; 1920, £8 2s 6d; January, 1921, £8 10s; May, 1921, £7 Ils (id; Januarv, 1922, £6 14s; May, 1922, £6 (is 6d; 1923, £6 10s; 1924, £6 2s 6d; 1925, £5 12s 6d ; 1926, £5 Ils; 1927, £4 2s fid; 1928, £4 10s; 1929, £4 17s (id; Juno, 1931, £4 15s; October, 1931. £3 J7s 6d.