WHEAT PRICES AND COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 6

WHEAT PRICES AND COSTS.

The Wheat Committee having; fixed the initial price for 1937 wheat—at 7d a bushel more than the initial price paid this year— the Minister of Industries and Commerce is now appealing to growers to increase production, in order that the whole of the Dominion's requirements can be supplied without importations. Whether this appeal will be successful is problematical, for while growers in North Canterbury are reported to be satisfied with the new price, others in Southern districts declare that the increase is insufficient to cover increased costs. The public meanwhile will be interested to learn how the extra 7d a bushel for wheat is to be absorbed, as the Minister has given an assurance that the prices of wheat and flour will not be increased. The Wheat Committee is to "explore every avenue for cost reduction," but the probability that it will discover ways of bringing about a substantial reduction before the next crop is sown appears exceedingly remote. Failing any such timely discovery, is the difference to be made up by a subsidy? The public already pays heavily for the protection given the wheatgrowers, and it will require exceedingly good reasons before it will consent to pay more. The Minister is entitled to say that if an industry [for which the Government has conserved the whole Dominion market, and fixed the price of the product a year in advance, does not co-operate as requested, he "may be obliged to ask them whether it is their desire that the scheme of wheat control should be continued or not."