Protection for N. Zealand

Growers Even When Not Growing

117 HEN Mr. Halstead, a Govern- TT ment member of NZ Parlia men, asked the NZ Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Holyoake, whether New Zealand, desparately short of potatoes, could not obtain some from a large surplus offering at Norfolk Island in October, he re ceived the now familiar reply.

Mr. Holyoake said that it would be uneconomic to airfreight potatoes to New Zealand.

It will be recalled that some time ago the New Zealand Government, as a concession to Norfolk Island, permitted the import of certain vegetables, at certain times of the year, but by air freight only —to protect New Zealand growers.

It does not matter whether the New Zealand growers have nothing to offer, this extraordinary ruling seems still to apply. At the very moment that the Minister made his reply, the New Zealand government vessel Matai was repairing tele graph cables at Norfolk and was to come back to Auckland almost empty of cable. She could have carried at least 50 tons of potatoes.

Another vessel, the 300-ton Rannah, idle awaiting a shipment of tomatoes from the Cook Islands, could also have made a profitable

voyage to Norfolk if the quantities of potatoes were available there as suggested by Mr. Halstead.

Though Norfolk could produce every kind of produce in short sup ply in New Zealand during the winter, it appears destined never to be permitted to do so and it is not shortage of shipping tonnage that will be the cause.

U Mr. J. C. Gerlach of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture’s Tropical Section, returned to New Zealand early in October after carrying out a survey of agricul tural possibilities on three islands of the Lower Cook group.