COMMERCIAL.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18016, 7 March 1924, Page 10

COMMERCIAL.

PRICE OF WHEAT.

POULTRYMEN COMPLAIN

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TSLEGRAJI.)

WELLINGTON, March 6.

A large and representative deputation from the New Zealand Poultry Association complained to tlie Minister of Agriculture to-day, about the high t.rice of fowl wheat. The total numlwr of fowls owned by affiliated societies u-.is stated as 1,250,000, requiring a million and a-quarter bushels of wheat veariv. At the Government price of os 2d per bushel this would mean £360,500, whereas the Association could import from Sydney at 5s Gd jx.t l>i;'<liH. making the total cost £;jt:3.750 only, or from Adelaide at -Ls (id. costing £281.2-10 only. The Government pr.iee would thus be £41,750 or 10\ per cent, over the Association's Sydney piiw, and £'104,250. or 27 per cent, over their Adelaide figure. What was the ieason for this great difference? The Minister replied that merchants iiad made offers to the Government

also, but when put to the test they did not pan out. The Government ■mist control the importation of fowl wheat to prevent millers from getting it fur milling purposes, and to prevent profiteering. The Government was not making a penny profit out of the business. Ho was sure nobody could nnport good fowl wlieat at a lower price. He would not allow cheap, uai-.ty wheat, stinking with smut, etc., and full of noxious weeds, like samples he produced, to come in. He could consider allowing the Association to buy i'-nd import wheat under Government control, but he thought the result would bo an education to poultrymen. He would consult with the Departmental officers' as to a Bill to control the export of eggs and regulate the industry. The Department would assist the Association on the same lines as last year. TRADE FACILITIES BILL. SECOND READING PASSED. (Received March 6th, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 5. The House of Commons, by 297 votes to 43, read a second time the Trade Facilities Bill. A few revolting back-bench Ministerialists opposed the Bill and called for a division, owing to a proposal to guarantee a loan of £3,500,000 to a Sudan plantations syndicate in the interests of cotton-growing. The main grounds for the Tynesiders' opposition to the Sudan loan was their objection to State assistance to a private concern which they contended was making huge profits. COLONIAL SUGAR CO. REORGANISATION PROPOSALS. (Received March 6th, 9 p.m.) SYDNEY, March 6. On March 31st shareholders of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company will meet to confirm or reject proposals for re-vesting the business of the Fiji and New Zealand branch company in the Australian company. The proposals provide that £1,625,000, received from the liquidation of the former company, be capitalised and transferred to the share capital of the Australian company, by dividing the amount into fully paid up shares of £2O each, divided pro rata amongst the holders of the shares of the Fiji and New Zealand company. Under this arrangement £81,260 of the unissued £2O shares of the company will be credited as fully paid up in the proportion of one such share for every two shares in the capital of the Australian company then heldlby such persons respectively, such shares to be treaed as an increase of the amount of capital of the company held by such persons, and not as income. In the case of holders of half shares, these are to be sold and the proceeds distributed amongst holders.

SHEEPSKIN PRICES.

AMERICAN BUYER DISCOURAGED "We usually depend on 100,0Q0 dozen sheepskins annually from New Zealand," said Mr Henry G. Drueding, an American buyer now in Wellington, "but the sharp rise in New Zealand prices since last year makes business impossible for us. I have gone very thoroughly into the question, and you are asking very much more than we can afford to pay in the United States. The people seem to think they have a gold mine in sheepskins. "We use a great many South American sheepskins also, hut not of the same quality, wh,ich we cannot obtain there t and for the purpose we require the !N ew Zealand el£iz]s are uxrexcellod. You are killing a good many lambs, but it is not these skins we want, but the sheepskins. I cannot pay the prices asked. My company works 12,000 skins a day, and needs a large supply, but the 33 1-3 per, cent, increase on last year's prices is' too much, and cannot do absorbed in the business. The South American market is short supplied also, hut the oise there has not been so 6harp."