The Wheat Price

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21991, 15 January 1937, Page 10

The Wheat Price

Though they will welcome the announcement that £ 120,000 is to be distributed among them as a final payment on the 1936 wheat crop, growers are at present much more interested in what they will receive for the crop which is now almost ready for harvest. The announcement of the new season's prices cannot now be long delayed, as some wheat, in Marlborough, has already been harvested. In fixing the price for this season, the Minister will have to guide him the researches into growing costs made by the committee set up early in December. The committee has concluded its hearing of evidence, and, according to the statement made by the Minister when the appointment was announced, will report before the new prices are made known. Through the year farmers have in many parts of the country said that with rising costs wheat has become an unattractive crop, and the reduced area sown this year is evidence that some, at least, believed what they said. But the Government in fixing prices for this year will have to take into consideration more than the actual cost of production in the Dominion. Lamb and wool have become in the last 12 months exceedingly attractive crops; and unless there is a substantial increase over the price paid to wheatgrowers for their production last year, it is certain that many will turn to branches of farming that give good returns without the anxiety that must attend the growing of wheat. The Minister just before Christmas in a statement on wheat said that it appeared that the price would be higher this year. A section of the farmers feel that it should be substantially higher, and all farmers are agreed that costs have risen to such an extent that some rise is no more than just. The price last year was raised over that of the year before on the understanding that farmers would pay increased wages to harvest and other farm labour; but growers have found that increased wages are not the whole of the increased costs story. New Zealand grew last year barely enough milling wheat for its requirements, and plantings for the coming season have shown a serious decline. No grower can doubt the sincerity of the Minister's desire to promote and maintain in New Zealand an efficient wheat industry; but the price to be paid will have to be made high enough to secure the co-opera-tion of the grower in the face of rising costs and more attractive returns from other forms of farming.