COUNTRY'S WHEAT SUPPLY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2241, 29 August 1914, Page 8

COUNTRY'S WHEAT SUPPLY

;;•' THE.POSITION ANALYSED. ' ' (By Telegraph—Press Association.). Chrlstchurch, August, 28. : The remarks .made in Parliament last evening were.brought*under the notice of one , of the , best informed' men- in-;the wheat-and flour trade in Christchurch, and the opinion was expressed that Mr. Buxton's, figures were quite incorrect. Mr. Buxton.based his estimate of the "carry-over" oh the' lowest , ''carry--over" for the-'decade, but in 1913 there was practically rfo "carry-over" 'ai all. In 1913 there would- probably have been tin actual shortage, .buffer ..the imports of Australian flour, , 'equal'to over.loo,000 bushels of wheat.. The importations of Australian flour tliie year are heav-ier-than last year,' because the posi- , tion was realised that this year's short crop,-following ai short one of 1913, did not provide' sufficient - /wheat for the yea'r's requirements. Should the next harvest .bo as late as, last season's, the probability is that all. the stocks of old wheat will be exhausted before the new grain is available. Tho millers must, if possible, make some provision for holding over a , quantity'of old wheat for mixing with the new, as it depends entirely upon the season how soon the ne-Y wheat is fit for milling. : :

One,' difficulty. in making up estimates of the probable stocks of wheat on hand, it wos pointed out, has,been the reliability of ;the figures published by the Department of Agriculturo. In 1910 and 1911. no statistics wore collected, and the acrenge and yield were, merely "guessed at." In 1913 and 1914, the returns were collected by. post from the fanners, and these last two years showed substantial .decreases-oh the "estimated" crops of 1910 and 1911, and the figures for these two.years, not being reliable, no'one could say what the "carry-over" from 1911 to 1912 was, but 'the snrplus,from 1912, carried forward into'l9l3, was only sufficient to make up, with the imports of. Australian flour, the deficiency in tho 1913 crop. -No one in the trade has.been estimating the "carry-over" of this year's wheat into the 1914 cereal year, and the demand for wheat for snrinK sowing has made Airbads into stocks that was not contemplated. ,