The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1947. Wheat Production

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25272, 26 August 1947, Page 6

The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1947. Wheat Production

The appeal by the national production conference for increased wheat sowings as part of New Zealand’s help for Britain has been reinforced and underlined in Canterbury by the committee of the Wheat Research Institute and by a meeting of millers and brokers convened by the Wheat and Flour Controller. It can scarcely be doubted that farmers w T ill respond to this appeal as , they did to similar appeals during j the war, and, in the main, for the | same unselfish reasons. The two Christchurch meetings nevertheless did well to emphasise that for most farmers able to grow wheat selfinterest and the national interest are not so very far * apart. The members of the Wheat Research Institute devoted some attention to what they described as a “ com- “ plex ” about wheat-growing. That many farmers are prejudiced against this crop is not to be doubted; and it is unlikely that argument will quickly convince farmers who have formed their judgment on years of experience of all kinds of crops and farm management. Where prejudice is so strong there are usually good reasons for it. At the same time, it is possible to believe that none of the long-held objections to wheatgrowing will weigh unduly with farmers in the present emergency. Government spokesmen have contended on many occasions that the New Zealand farming economy will not permit permanent self-sufficiency in wheat. Whatever may be said for that as a long-term principle, the case for a short-term effort to reach or approach self-sufficiency is unanswerable. New Zealand is a fertile country supporting a comparatively small population, and as Mr R. J. Lyon, chairman of the Wheat Research Institute Committee, said, there is plenty of suitable land to grow all the wheat the country needs. Even if it were established beyond doubt that it is more

economical in normal times for New Zealand to import a proportion of its wheat requirements, the present use of limited shipping resources for this purpose is unjustified and unjustifiable. Every extra bushel of wheat that New Zealand grows will be so much Australian wheat available for Britain and so much shipping freed to transport it there. The Government has yet to consider—or at least to pronounce upon —the recommendations of the national production conference. It is to be hoped that it will support the appeal for increased wheat production in the several ways that are open to it. Wheat is an anxious crop to grow, and the farmer’s anxieties are deepened in times of labour shortage. Mr J. Carr, of Methven, suggested that an upward scaling of agricultural workers’ wages is needed so that the rural industries can compete on more even terms for a stare of the limited labour supply. That, in turn, involves reconsideration of the guaranteed prices for farm products. If the appeal for increased wheatgrowing is to succeed fully a reconsideration of the wheat price will, in any case, be called for—not merely as an incentive to farmers to turn from something less troublesome and equally or more profitable, but to encourage the sowing of wheat on marginal lands. There is substance in the complaints of wheat-growers that the “ statistical ” method of fixing the wheat price is unfair to the farmer who grows wheat on the lighter land. The basing of production costs on averages—mainly for good and medium wheat land—may not be unreasonable as a general rule; it is clearly not a good principle at a time when there is an imperative need to bring in every available acre. Measures to encourage the production of wheat must be taken without delay if they are to be fully effective. There is still time to swell the harvest of 1948.