The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1945, Wheat

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24545, 19 April 1945, Page 4

The Press THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1945, Wheat

The Minister of Supply, broadcasting an appeal to wheatgrowers for the largest poissible acreage, stressed the severity of the world-wide food shortages, especially of those in Europe, which have brought millions to the edge of famine, and over, and threaten millions more. In this appalling situation, Mr Sullivan said, New Zealand had no right to claim either foodstuffs from oversea or the shipping space to carry them. It is, in fact, New Zealand’s plain and pressing responsibility to produce all the foodstuffs that the resources of land and materials and labour permit—especially the foodstuffs most necessary for export—and to consume them economically. Mr Sullivan’s appeal therefore rests on strong ground; but he did not make, and perhaps is not in a position to make, the fullest use of its strength. For instance, although he said (and said convincingly) that New Zealand has no right to import food that others need more and need desperately, he said also that the Government had arranged shipments of Canadian wheat, and, when the quantity had .to be reduced for want of ships, had bought Australian flour.'lt is probably true that these transactions were completed before the full truth about the plight of Europe—and of Britain —had emerged; but Mr Sullivan would have avoided the weakening inconsistency in his appeal, if hte had been able to say that the Government wished # to cancel these purchases, that it was resolved to make no more, and .that it would, if necessary, regulate the use of grain. , Such a statement would have shown producers and consumers alike their unqualified responsibility. As it is, they see it qualified by the fact that the Government has contracted to buy food and has to that extent eased the obligation on both. Again, the Minister’s appeal is weaker than it might have been, because he had rnthing to say about the grave problem of the exhaustion of lands cropped year after year, too little to say about the shortages of labour, transport, and materials that handicap the most willing farmers, and nothing new to say about price. Conditions have changed considerably since the Government extracted from the fanners their reluctant acceptance of its conditional scale of prices, topped at 7s Id for 250,000 acres or more. They have changed, for example, because the prospects of finding sufficient skilled labour have worsened, because the trend of costshas still run against the farmer, and because the weather has run against him, too. The Minister should have addressed himself to these facts. They are facts > for him to weigh as well as for the farmer to know. Re could not renew exhausted land; but he could have promised to give the'farmer a chance to set himself and . his land right again. He could have proitiised that the Provincial Councils and their committees will be authorised to order'wheat to .be grown on land that should grow it; which would remove a legitimate grievance among farmers who have done their best and seen their neighbours do what was more profitable. The Minister could not say that he would solve the wheatgrowers’ labour and materials problem; but he .could have said that he would see to it that their needs would stand first, and that he would back the councils and committees in any and every scheme to rationalise the use of labour, plant, and materials. Finally, on the question of price, if the Minister could not announce ar. unconditional price for wheat, then it was—and is —his' business to find alternative means, such as contract growing or Idas guarantees, which will free the farmers from risks that are, for many of them, heavily deterrent, if not prohibitive.