THE WORLD'S WHEAT CROP.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 204, 30 August 1888, Page 4

THE WORLD'S WHEAT CROP.

The Old World's extremity; provides the New World's opportunity, and the disastrous news which comes from America, Egypt,^ England, and Europe generally of partial failure of this year's wheat crop, will be welcome ■■■ tidings to the farmers of Australasia, who have all along been -heavily .. handicapped by their distance-from .-the markets, ari(i of late years by' the very low prices that haye, ,been ruling for wheat. Rain is the enemy to be feared in Europe, and drought is no lesa destructive in its consequences to the Australian wheat crop, so that New Zealand, with her sure harvests, ought to derive the most "benefit from the rise in the price of wheat. In the London market, wheathas lately gone up 7s per quarter. The American crop shows a deficiency this year of 100,000,000 bushels; India lias a fair crop, while Russia has :a surplus, and will be able to export 150,000 quarters more than usual. Great Britain requires 17,000,006 quarters of wheat a-year, and this year the yield of Great Britain is t between seven and eight million quarters. She therefore needs about. ten million quarters of whea*; additional for her population, and that

can usually be drawn chiefly from America and India. The latest cable news of destructive rains ml England may cause a greatly enhanced demand for Australian and New Zealand wheat in London. ._ In Australia, there is a considerable surplus this, year, and the New Zealand crop is greater than usual by about 1,500,000 bushels. From this may be seen the importance of wheat production ift this colony, and it is to be regretted that so far. the Auckland farmers are not able to supply the local demand, and so prevent importations from the South by thousands of sacks. Probably the prospect of higher prices will induce them to enter upon the cultivation of cereals on a more extended scale, for of course the local market, responsive to that of London; shows a rising, tendency, and the effects are already visible in the • advance in the pnVft of flour by ton all rpund. 1 lie colonial con sumer may, in consequence of the failure of the wheat crop in the Old World, have to pay a higher price for the "staff of life;" but few people wilf begrudge this if there is a marked revival of the farming .industry, which constitutes the staple of the colony, and the condition of which closely affects the general prosperity. . •