WHEAT INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 14

WHEAT INDUSTRY.

BETTERMENT SCHEME. RECOMMENDATIONS FRAMED. EXCISE DITTY ON FLOUR ? i (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 14. The Royal Commission on the wheat industry has issued its second report, and its recommendations for the betterment of the wheatgrower and the improvement of our agricultural prospects are now. before Parliament. In its first provisional report the commission recommended that the Government should give financial assistance to farmers who sowed wheat in 1934, and that the question of "a home consumption price for such part of the product as is consumed in the Commonwealth" should be seriously considered. The report just tabled by Dr. Earle Page deals in the first place with this matter of local wheat prices. It suggests that our wheatgrowers, who have already received some temporary assistance, shall row be aided by "the application of a home consumption price for flour by an excise duty on flour used within the Commonwealth." The commissioners realise-that it may be "impossible or undesirable" to raise the required funds in this way, and they suggest that the same result may be attained by a compulsory marketing scheme. In any case, they recommend such a plan-provided that the majority °* wheat farmers of each of the three wheat-exporting States express their approval of such a scheme, and that the principles on which the compulsory marketing echeme is based shall be those now recommended. They suggest also that the Federal Government shall take steps "to facilitate adjustment ot debts within the wheat industry, in accordance with the echeme set forth by the commission. . • Restriction of Output? These are the main recommendations contained in the report,- but there are a hoet of subsidiary suggestions, dealing with the possibility of improving our methods of cultivation and the niechariical equipment of our farms, thus at the same time lowering cost of production and increasing the output. The report also makes a,general survey of wheat prospects, and indicates that an exhaustive analysis of the conditions of pro-, duetion in Australia may lead indirectly to a restriction of output by throwing out of cultivation some of our poorer wheat-growing areas, which are now, in the economic sense, "on the margin of cultivation." Obviously, it is impossible to disease so comprehensive a report in great detail till one has had time to study it at length <£nd to estimate the probt ble effects of its proposals. Mr. Stevens, j iu to-day's issue of the "Sydney Morn- J

ing Herald," makes some carefullyguarded comments, deferring to a later date his final pronouncement on the merits of the report, and confining himself for the moment to two of its recommendations. He is inclined to favour the maintenance of "a fair local price" for the benefit of the producer; and this may be secured through "a properly constituted marketing scheme." But he does not like the form that this compulsory marketing plan takes in the report, as it seems to him to restrict unduly the control of the grower over his own commodity.

Rural Debt Relief. Aβ to the problem or the rural debt relief, the Premier points out that his Government has already attempted to handle this matter in its own way with some success, and he evidently is not inclined to substitute a Federal scheme for his own plan of State relief. He pointe out that the New South Wales relief scheme "operates on a voluntary basis, without legal process, and with a minimum of formality," and it has already proved its efficacy. However, Mr. Stevens is naturally not disposed to commit himself unreservedly at this stage, either to approval or condemnation of the report. It may be pointed out, however, that Mr. Stevens has avoided all reference' to the proposal made in the report for a .discussion on "the desirability of increasing the rate of exchange between Australia and London" —which the commission thinks should be referred to the Commonwealth Bank Board.

Also, neither the commission nor, the. Premier has thought it necessary to mention the effect's likely to be produced upon the price of bread by the enforcement of "a fair price to producers" by excise duty or compulsory marketing. However,' as Sir Herbert Gipp, chairman of the commission, is now engaged on a separate inquiry into bread and flour prices, we may hope to hear more about this important matter later on.