"WOOL IS UP!"

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 219, 16 September 1935, Page 16

"WOOL IS UP!"

GOOD SYDNEY SALES

UNHAPPY WHEATGROWERS.

GOVERNMENT UNDKR FIRE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, September f>.

"Wool is up!"—the glad cry is echoing once more around Australia, and our sheep men through the length and breadth of the continent are rejoicing greatly. Before the sales started in Sydney last week it was generally anticipated that the comparative shortage of supplies and evident eagerness on the part of Japan and Germany would mean a substantial rise in prices, estimated provisionally at about 20 per cent. But on tho first day prices were nearly 20 per cent higher than at the close of last season in June, and they were nearly 30 per cent higher than at the opening Sydney auction last September.

Tho average for the first three days of the sale was nearly 1/ per lb, as against 10d for the oj>cning week last year. Of course there is. some difference of opinion among the experts as to the exact amount of tho gain that will accrue to the Commonwealth. Over 43,000 bales sold last week for about £731,000, which averages out at £1(5 10/4 per bale, and as the best wool is yet to com© on the market it is now assumed that tho season's clip will average £17 per bale and will sell for nearly £50,000,000, as against about £40,000,000 last year. It is said that private deals in passed-in lots have brought the total sales up to eloso on 60,000 bales, without materially affecting the average, so that we may safely accept Professor Copland's estimate of a rise of £10,000,000 in the returns from our wool clip, as compared with last year.

"On the Sheep's Back." It should bo unnecessary to enlarge upon tho vast difference that this verysubstantial increase in the wool returns will make not only to the finances of the man on tho land, but to the proepecte of the whole Commonwealth. Australia is still largely, as the phrase goes, "on the sheep's back," and this great improvement in the outlook for our graziers and sheep farmers will have a most beneficial effect upon public finances as well as upon the operations of the secondary industries arid on commercial activities in all our centree of population.

Naturally the sheep men are taking a much more cTieerful view of life just now, and they are prepared to deal more kindly and tolerantly than usual with our political representatives and rulers. But tho same cannot be said for the wheat-growers, who are still looking in vain for markets at profitable rates,"and who seem just now to be driven to the last extreme of exasperation and almost of despair. Early last month the Farmers' and Settlers' Association, which is the back bone of the Country party in this State, met in conference in Sydney and passed a series of resolutions attacking the Federal Government for pot doing more to assist the wheatgrowers, and urging the establishment of a compulsory Federal wheat-poo] under producers' control. During the debate vehement attacks were made on Dr. Earle Page, the Acting-Prime Minister and Federal leader of the Country party, for failing to meet the expectations of his supporters, more especially in regard to the Government's promise to carry out the recommendations of the last Royal Commission on wheat.

Dr. Page's Spirited Reply. The attack on Dr. Page was very bitter but entirely undeserved, and Dr. Page, who has never lacked courage, made a speech in his own defence, before the conference closed. He pointed out that there are constitutional difficulties that would prevent the Federal Government from setting up a compulsory pool for the producers to manage, and that in any case the Royal Commission's report did not recommend this course.

He was, however, naturally most indignant at the charges of vacillation, procrastination and cowardice levelled against him by some of his critics. "It is an absolute lie, , ' he told the conference, "to say that I have been afraid to declare myself on this or any other question. I would suggest in all humility that the time has come to cease attacking me and get on with the job." Dr. Page then made an eloquent and pathetic reference to his past record: "For 10 solid yearn I have been spending myself—l have worked in and out of season and never stopped— destroying my domestic life and throwing away mv whole fortune. And then you come here and say: 'Here is a man who looks onlv for place and power and who is betraying the people of this country.' I say it is a misrepresentation and a lie, and I resent it with my whole being." This powerful protest made a distinct impression on the conference, and secured a great deal of public sympathy for Dr. Earle Page, who is recognised in all political circles as an able and courageous champion of the primary producers' rights and claims.

The trouble with the Country party here, as elsewhere, is that the men on the land usually take a self-concentrated mid limited view of public questions and national problems, and when they are not quarrelling with the Government they are fighting each other.

Pool Not Recommenaed. As regards this demand for a compulsory- wheat pool controlled by the producers, it was not recommended by the Royal Commission on Wheat, it is not favoured by the Federal Government, it would not command the support of all the primary producer organisations in all the States, and as the law now stands there are serious constitutional obstacles to its establishment. Under these circumstances it is hard to see what good the farmers and settlers' conference expected to do by repeating their demand for it and by abusing poor Dr. Page. The farmers might well have shown some appreciation of the scheme recently put forward by Dr. Page for the establishment of national councils to ensure collaboration between the States and the Common wealth in regard to the supply and the marketing of our primary products. The president of the Primary Producers' Union a few days ago urged all the members of his organisation to support these proposals, which would give them an ample measure of local self-control. So far as New South Wales is concerned, our wheatgrowers should be gratified to learn that during the coming session Mr. Stevens intend? to bring down legislation to establish a wheat pool with a home consumption price, with safeguards similar to now operating in the dairy industry. Whether they are satisfied with this or Lot, they have no excuse for attacking Dr. Page, and the onslaught made upon him by the farmers at the recent conference seems to most people here a. flagrant example of political ingratitude.