CORRESPONDENCE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11649, 31 July 1903, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

WHEAT STATISTICS. TO TUB IiDrTOR OF th_ : '•. ( Sir,—Your correspondent "Obserrw,'*' having quoted my letter relative to vlieal' statistics, it seems necessary to coiject hk impression that I have "dragged in-last year*statistics." It is obvious that I dealt witi. this year's .statistics, although tfie data were inadvertently made to read February, 1902-3, instead of February, 1903-4. I did not correct the error, as I imagined intelligent readers would see this from 'th* context of my letter. I will not omhm; "Observer's" figures in detail, but woolfl point out that his argument relative te the consumption required, can be taken two ways, his own, to prove tha consumption wrong, and another, to prove the estimate. totally unreliable. Alao, he should recollect that there, are two quantities to b» reckoned with, in regard to wheat suppliei, vi_., the visible and the invisible supply.Last year, with record prices ruling, doubtleas tha invisible supply took a prominent hand, but I feel sure tho invisible eupplj this season is a nominal quantity, and I ■have the word of many farmers that tbey had more 'wheat last year to sell thaa thi% owing to holding for the previous one, or li some cases two seasons. In conclusion, I will not insult tha intelligence of millers by supposing tha letter copulated from one of them, bub If "Observer" is a schoolboy, and lives long enough to beoome "Observant," he. wifl discover in this world nothing gets neartf to the truth, than—Yours, etc., HARD FACTS.: 29th July, 1903, Ashburton.