Wheat and Eggs

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 145, 16 March 1931, Page 9

Wheat and Eggs

sir,—The world’s yearly wheat crop is roughly 2,500,000,000 bushels, to winch the Dominion’s contribution is four to nine million bushels. The relative volume of our crop to the whole is about that of a grain of wheat to a mountain. Yet this “mighty atom” has for 15 years succeeded in imposing its will and to levy a heavy toll on the whole Dominion. As the present state of things is. stifling the prospects of other industries and preventing the development of new ones, there is now a demand for removal of Customs duties from all stock foods. Your correspondent, tacts, asks, In the event of duty on wheat being removed would the duty against imported eggs also be removed? The duty on wheat is prohibitive. It enhances local prices in some cases 200 per cent., as against the duty on eggs bo per cent. Thus eggs can be imported, and are imported, to the detriment of the local poultry industry, while wheat cannot be imported to its advantage. Also, the duty against imported eggs is in the main the natural sequence to the heavy duty “Facts” also stated that although Australia had cheap wheat, it had not, and could not get, an egg export trade “Facts” is at variance with the facts here. In a recent report from London to “N.Z. Feathered Lite, Mr. J. B. Merrett says: "During the past three months the approximate l u « ntl^ es ß °. f eggs in the shell shipped to Great Britain are as follow:—From Australia, 70,000,000 eggs; from South Africa, 61,000,000 eggs; from New Zealand, none. The difficult conditions of export apply more or less not only to one but to the whole of the industries in New Zealand. It is a world problem, of cheap lands and low wages m Europe as against inflated prices of land and better wages here. But with duty-free stock foods New Zealand can make a success of e"S export to London. Not, of course, in the European flush season but in our flush season, and 1 their season of scarcity. This is all that can be expected or profitable export of New Zealand wheat, it stands on a lower plane than eggs. Can “Facts” state the loss entailed by last year’s exportation of wheat to Loudon? I understand it revised less than half its N T ew Zealand sellin'’ price, in addition to cost of transport and other charges. It is time for the small stock-growing industries to h .„ . look in.-! Wow*,