CONTRACTS TO GROW WHEAT

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23798, 18 November 1942, Page 2

CONTRACTS TO GROW WHEAT

SEVERAL HUNDRED COMPLETED ASSURANCES GIVEN TO FARMERS As a result of the work being done by brokers, large numbers of contracts for the growing of wheat for the 194344 season are being signed by farmers, ■according to a statement yesterday by the Wheat and Flour Controller (Mr R. McPherson), and some hundreds of completed contract forms have already reached his office. Information from the contracts was, he said, being collated in terms of production council districts, and would be sent to the councils to enable them to make a survey of the wheat being grown in their districts. Mr McPherson said that at a meeN ing in Timaru on Tuesday of the South Canterbury Primary Production Council and chairmen of district committees. he had emphasised that farmers need not be frightened at the idea of signing a contract to grow wheat. The contract would, be regarded by the Wheat Committee as a pledge rather than a contract, but it was expected that every farmer who signed this pledge would use his utmost endeavour to sow the area contracted for. The Timaru meeting, Mr McPherson said, which followed a meeting of Canterbury primary production councils on Friday, was one of. a series of meetings to be held throughout the wheatgrowing areas of the South Island tor a discussion of plans for the growing of 350,000 acres for the 1943-44 season. He had given those attending the Timaru meeting figures (not for publication) on military and other wheat requirements, and had emphasised shipping difficulties. Lieutenant-Colonel K. J. Walker had discussed the release of men from the Army for farm work, and his assurances that the Army was anxious to assist farmers in every way possible had been well received. Lieu-tenanl-Colonel Walker had invited farmers who found any difficulty in securing the release of men to telephone ‘him, when he would attend to the matter personally, as far as the release concerned a soldier serving in the South Island.