THRESTING CHARGES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17691, 17 February 1923, Page 11

THRESTING CHARGES.

TO THY BDITOB OP "THE PBSB3.* Sir, —A month or two ago the members of the Threshing Millowners' Union and a number of wheat-growers in the Ashburton County went to the Arbitration Court, which was sitting in Christchurch, to see if the above Court would reduce the price of threshThe reßult, was that the Arbitration Court absolutely refused to reduce the price in" any way. Althe Court refused to reduce the price in any way, it is a wellknown fact that there are several threshing mills at present threshing in the Ashburton County (which is the largest wheat-growing district in the South Island), the owners of which have voluntarily decided to help the wheat-grower, and are threshing oats for 3Jd per bushel (flat rate), and wheat from stook s}d per bushel, and 4jd from stack, less discount of 5 per cent, if paid within thirty days, and, needless to say, are getting more threshing offered than they can cope with. Now these prices are considerably less than the prices fixed by the Arbitration Court. Mr George Sheat, president of the Millowners' Union, when he put his case before the Arbitration Court, wanted to reduce the price of threshing by first reducing the workmen's wages, and now that the millowners see that very little wheat will be grown this coming year, several of them, as I have previously stated, have agreed to thresh for considerably less than the award rate, and yet pay the workmen the same wages. The only conclusion I can come to is that the millowners' have been charging far too much before, and I think Mr George Sheat, as president of the Millowners' Union, should have told the Court that the millowners were making huge profits, instead of trying to reduce the price of threshing by cutting the workmen's wages, for he is well aware that the workmen's wages were the last to go up, and yet he wants them to be the first reduced, and, as far as I can see, the only use the Arbitration Court award, as far as threshing is concerned, is that the millowner must not charge more than the award rate, which, by the way, is of very little use to the wheat-grower.— Yours, etc., METHVEN" WHEAT-GBOWER. February 16th, 1923.