WHEAT DUTIES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19675, 19 July 1929, Page 10

WHEAT DUTIES.

COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE. [THE PKESS Special Serrice.] WELLINGTON, July 18. The question of wheat duties was referred to in the House this evening by the Minister for Lands (Hon. Mr Forbes), who announced his complete willingness to stand by the decisions of the special committee to be appointed to investigate the matter. He said that many times he had been asked what was the Government going to do regarding wheat duties. He had consulted the Prime Minister and Cabinet on the point, and then had announced that the Government was making no change as far as the coming season's crop was concerned, but that a special committee would investigate the facts. He had made that statement several times, but he had found that a certain amount of doubt was cast on its bona fides, and there were whispers that the Government was going back on its word. "I am quite prepared," he said, "to abide by the decisions of any committee of the House after the facts and figures have been put forward. The wheat-farmers of Canterbury are not asking for any advantage. * They are only asking for the same measure of protection as any other industry. I am satisfied that as far as the wheatgrowers are concerned they have no fear whatever what the verdict will be when the decision of the committee is placed before the House."