Wheat Shipments To N.I. To Start This Week

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31275, 23 January 1967, Page 12

Wheat Shipments To N.I. To Start This Week

Although the wheat harvest in Canterbury has barely begun, the shipment of wheat from the province to the North Island will start this week.

The general manager of the New Zealand Wheat Board (Mr L. C. Dunshea) said that bagged wheat from Mid-Can-terbury would be loaded by the Kanna and Kaimai at Timaru on Wednesday. These initial shipments were being made within a few days of the start of the harvest. From this early start the shipping programme would be developed to the capacity of North Island buyers to accept and store the wheat. Particular attention would be given to the shipment of bulk wheat wanted by the North Island buyers, entirely set up to handle bulk grain. The harvesting of the North Island crop would start soon and to allow for its disposal it would not be possible to ship South Island wheat to the lower half of the North Island until the North Island crop was cleared, Mr Dunshea said. Until this happened South Island shipments would be to Auckland and Mount Maunganui.

Mr Dunshea said that North Island buyers could not ac-

cept the large South Island surplus except at a gradual rate and in regular shipments; throughout the' year. Knowledge of this should serve to re-emphasise the need for South Island growers to provide for the safe keeping of their crops until they could be moved from farms to South Island buyers or for shipment to the North Island.