The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1925. The Wheat Problem.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18577, 30 December 1925, Page 6

The Press WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1925. The Wheat Problem.

I The correspondence which passed between the Minister of Agriculture and the President of the Mid-Canter bury branch of the Farmers' Union just before Christmas seemed to indicate that Mr Nosworthy is uneasy over the settlement —so far as it is a settlement—of the prices for the current season's wheat, and that the President does not know how to help the Union and the wheat-growers out of the muddle created by the Ashburton conferences. Perhaps there will be further developments after the holidays, and we should say that wheatgrowers are curious to know what is going to happen. While we are waiting for any developments that may take place, we can do worse than take note of the first signs of the hostility which wheat-growers will encounter in any campaign for the adequate protection of their industry. In this week's issue of the " Weekly Press," its North Island correspondent summarises, for the instruction of Canterbury farmers, an article in a North Island paper vigorously attacking the claim of the wheat-growers to consideration at the hands of the Government and Parliament. The object of the article is to persuade those who may read it that they must reject the idea " that in keeping alive such an "unprofitable industry the Canterbury "farmers are self-sacrificing patriots "whose one desire is to keep the population from starving in case of a "war or strike." If the farmer does not grow wheat, it is added, this is because he grows something that pays him better. Nobody would choose such a method of attack who realised that a great deal more is involved in the maintenance of the wheat industry than the fanner's profit on his harvest. The farmer's rights are certainly very important. During the war he was assuredly robbed by the policy of control, and if he chose to do so he could quite fairly claim some sort of recompense. Moreover, he can claim that as his industry is infinitely more important than any secondary industry whatsoever he is entitled to at least as much protection as is given to tjie manufacturer of boots or brooms or buttons or bird-cages. Biit more important than .the rights of the grower as an individual is the value of the industry itself—an industry which is necessary to economic husbandry in this province (however unimportant it may appear to people whose knowledge of rural industry begins .and ends with the cow), which makes profitable other useful and economically valuable industries, and which protects the people against the foreign exploiter of a grain famine. The North Island's hostility to the Canterbury wheat-grower is due mainly to ignorance. Its spokesmen, to judge them by the article quoted in the "Weekly Press," do not understand the joints we have here mentioned; and .they do not understand the vital differences between Australian and New Zealand conditions. The average bnshelago in Australia, they say, is 11.23 per acre, and in New Zealand 27.78, and "in spite of this "fact, we hear a clamour for pro- " tection." If the New Zealand wheatgrower could work 1000 acres by merely scratching the soil and almost dispensing with manures, and entirely dispensing with reaping, stooking, stacking, and threshing, he would be glad to gather 11.23 bushels per .acre. But land ( here is dear, and the whole process of production is far more costly than in Australia. But we need not follow the Northern argument further just now. We have given this publicity to it in order that our wheatgrowers may understand what they have to fight, and may make preparations to fight it They can fight with confidence, for there is no stronger ground upon which to take their stand than the fact that their industry, of vital importance' to the nation, should be more .highly protected than any other industry whatever. If this protection means a shilling a week more to the average household, it still means many shillings a week less than the public pays without a murmur for the maintenance of other industries which supply the minor necessaries of life.