THE PRICE OF WHEAT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 15, 28 October 1932, Page 7

THE PRICE OF WHEAT

FIXATION ADVOCATED.

MR J. CONNOLLY'S SUGGESTION.

(Special to the "Guardian.") WELLINGTON, October 27. A suggestion that in return for fixed minimum prices for their milling wheat New Zealand growers should be prepared to fix maximum prices and also accept lower rates for fowl wheat than for milling wheat, was made in the House to-day by Mr J. Connolly (Ind. C, Mid-Canterbury) during the Budget debate. • ' "The people of New Zealand have guaranteed the growers a minimum price of 4s 4d a bushel on trucks for their milling wheat," said Mr Connolly. "We growers, on the other hand, should do our part and undertake to sell our fowl wheat at a lower price than milling wheat. To my mind poultry-raisers have a real grievance in the' fact that they have to pay the same price for fowl wheat of a lower grade as they do for milling wheat." He proposed that if the price of milling wheat was 4s 4d a bushel, firstgrade fowl wheat should be sold for fourpence less. Different grades of fowl wheat should be examined at Lincoln College, their food values ascertained as so many pounds a bushel, and charges made on that basis.

The Suggested Maximum. "As the people provide us with a payable minimum price," continued Mr Connolly, "we should also fix a maximum price. Probably the time will come when the world's parity for milling wheat will rise again to 7s a v bushel, and there will then be nothing to prevent New Zealand growers from exporting their produce. I think we should fix a maximum of 5s 6d to the farmer, and work prices accordingly. When the sliding scale of duties was first introduced I had the fixing of the maximum rate in mind, and I am still an advocate of it." Mr Connolly said that in his opinion neither the payment of subsidies nor the fixing of a uniform rate as between Auckland and Christchurch would meet the position. He emphasised that wheat-growing was the first . arid most important industry in tht i country,' and that the sliding scale of .duties gave protection not only to the grower but to the secondary indu tra-s on a sound basis and to the workers. Duties Defended. ' As the representative of the £,reai> est wheat-growing area in New Zealand, Mr Connolly said he wished to endorse the reply made by Mr S. S. Kyle to Mr C. A. Wilkinson's attack on the duties. The growers in MidCanterbury were nobly doing their best to provide wheat at a reasonable price, and there was no doubt that the rate of 4s 4d a bushel was the lowest possible. Some people wondered why wheat growers were singled out for protection. One fact justifying protec.ou w«s that no other farmers bad s u spend so much money to secure a crop. It cost £2 an acre to get the crop sown, and there were many other outgoings.

"if wheat-growing is such a great profits-making business how is it that our friends in the North Island don't go in for it?" added Mr Connolly. "They could get Is more than we do in Canterbury."

A member: And a bigger yield as well.

"Yet they don't grow it," said Mr Connolly. He urged that if the industry had not been given protection in the form of a sliding scale of duties wheat-growing in New Zealand would be a thing of the past.

A Statement Challenged., The statement by Mr Wilkinson that two Ministers for Agriculture had lost their seats .on account of their advocacy of the sliding scale of wheat duties was challenged by Mr Connolly. "So far as the late . Minister fan Agriculture is concerned," said Mr Connolly, '"'he was an advocate, and rightly so, of the sliding scale of duties. He did his work well in this House and represented Mid-Uanter-bury equally well, and certainly he did not suffer because he was in favour of duties. I myself give place to no man in my advocacy of them. I was the first man to. place the proposal publicly before the people, and it is not right to assume that the present member for Mid-Canterbury is not a strong advocate for the retention of the duties." Equalisation of Price. The necessity of ensuring that the price of milling wheat should be the same in the North Island as in the South was emphasised by the Minister for Agriculture (the Hon. C. E. Macmillan). The growers in the South Island were quite satisfied that there was room for an investigation into the costs of Trilling wheat as it went from producer to consumer. The producers got the benefit of the sliding scale, and it had never been intended that groups of merchants in either Island should get the benefit. Mr C. Carr (Lab., Timaru): You believe they are getting the benefit ? Mr Macmillan: From figures which have been placed before me, I believe they are. The feeling in the North Island is that the consumer as well as the producer in the South Island has the advantage. The suggestion for the equalisation of prices has met with a ready response, and should appeal in the Norfh Island. Mr Wilkinson: Provided the price is reasonable.

Mr Macmillan: If the price is unreasonable the hon. member for Egmont will have on his side all the consumers in the South Island.