WHEAT INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 215, 11 September 1929, Page 19

WHEAT INDUSTRY.

PROTECTION ESSENTIAL 7 CANTERBURY MEN'S VIEWS. (By Telegraph.—Pzess Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The Wheat Committee to-day heard the evidence of Mr. C. H. Hewlett, of Christchurch, who has been interested in the wheat industry for years, and was the Government nominee on the Canterbury College Board of Governors, the Wheat Institute and the Plant Research Station. He said that if protection were removed a serious blow would be Btruck at a most important industry, which needed stabilisation. An alteration in the present scale of duties would be fatal now, though the 6uile might be reviewed in five years. The present cost of producing wheat was 5/4J per bushel. With the proposed super-tax it would be 5/7*. Replying to the Hon. J. G. Gobbe 5 Mr. Hewlett said he did not think the present duties increased the price of bread. Bread was pretty dear in Australia. He was confident that the work at Lincoln College and at research stations would lead to increased production at lower cost in the next five years. Dr. F. W. Hilgendorf, head of the biological department of Canterbury College, and director of the Wheat Institute, said the whole of the institute's funds came from the wheat industry, and if the wheat industry went under the institute would go under. He felt that the industry would go under if the sliding scale of duties were removed. There was about 41b of wheat in a 41b loaf of bread, said Dr. Hilgendorf. That wheat was worth about Id per lb, so if the wheat cost nothing the loaf which cost one shilling to-day would cost eightpence. The Chairman, Mr. C. A. Wilkinson, M.P.: Apparently they get wheat for nothing in Melbourne, because they sell bread for eightpence there. Mr. John Brown, an Ashburton farmer, said that at present the New Zealand grower could not hope to compete on a level footing with the Australian grower, because the cost.of production in the two countries could not be compared. Stable prices over a period of years were probably more necessary in wheat-growing than in any other branch of farming. The sliding scale of duties practically carried out what was attempted by an embargo on flour and fixed prices. There might be weaknesses in the sliding scale, but whatever the weaknesses were it brought them nearer to the ideal of a sufficient supply of wheat for the country, with a reasonable price for the grower, the miller and the consumer.

The inquiry was adjourned.