THE WHEAT PROBLEM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10672, 17 February 1926, Page 6

THE WHEAT PROBLEM

LABOUR PARTY'S STATEMENT.

CRITICISED BY MERCHANT,

(Per Press Association,) CHRISTCXIURCfI, This Day. Comment on the statement issued by the executive of the New Zealand Labour Party on the wheat question wts made by a Christcburci^ The merchant said that Hie paia eraoh in the statement tnajr tne Irowers broke both the spirit and the fetter of the agreement by sowing 160,000 acres only, the result being that the Dominion is raced with a shortage of between three, and . torn million" bushels,'-' wa, mos {unfair to the wheat-growers, and snowalthat those who had issued tne statement did not know very much about-the subject. There was very little doubt that if the weather had been favourable the area sown m wheat would have been ample to meet requirements, provided the yield had been up to the average. In that case, the present trouble over the wheat question would orobably never have arisen, ihe tarmen could hardly be blamed for the fact that wet weather had prevented the sowing of wheat. Rather he thought, they had done very welkin sowing as much as IoOjUW acres, especially to view of the difficulties they had to overcome and the risK they had to" take with late-sown wheat. With regard to the remedy proposed foy the Labour Party, the merchant said that he had read it carefully, and he could not see that any remedy was suggested. The statement proposed "that the wheat-grower should be guaranteed a price that will compensate him for his labour in good or bad eeasons." It was easy to make such statements, but it was more difficult to suggest how this could be carried.out. If the grower was to be compensated for his labour in a bad season the price he would have to be paid for Ins wheat would probably be-so high that millers could not afford to give it unless thev were protected from competition from Australian flour, and, judging; from the statement, the Labour Party was not in favour of any such protection. Further, high-priced wheat would mean high-priced bread, and it was easy to gather from the statement that the Labour Party was strongly opposed to any increase m the price ol bread or flour. It was advocated in the statement that if the grower received a free market, then it should be a free market all round, with no protection of any sort. If there were no protection it would be impossible to growers to receive a payable price for their wheat in a bad season. The position was that, if the wheat market was absolutely free, then growers would have to be prepared to accept the bad seasons with the ~ood, and take their chance of getting a payable price. As far as he could see, the only wav that the grower could hope to obtain a payable price m a bad season would be for the Government to give protection either by means ot duties or embargoes. * . There was another difficulty to which no reference was made in the statement, and that was, what was a payable price for wheat ? What the Labour Party regarded as a payable price-would-'probably not be regarded as such by the majority of wheatgrowers. If, as advocated in tbe statement, there was an absolutely free market for wheat, not a " free protected" market, as at present, then the millers would be able to nay only about os 6d -a bushel for wheat and compete against duty free Australian flour. At the present time most growers were asking *at least 7s a bushel for their wheat, so it was not likely that they would be content with 5s 63.

MARKETING ORGANISATION. INTERNATIONA L CON FER ENCE. VANCOUVER, February 15. The formation of an organisation to market the wheat of the various grain pools and co-operative agencies of Minnesota, Mouta.no- and North and South Dakota was announced to-day at St. Paul, Minnesota, with the filing of articles of incorporation. The authorised capital is 1,000,000 dollars. Pool leaders of Australia, Canada and the United gtates will meet at St. Paul to-morrow to discuss co-or-dination of the marketing of wheat in their countries.