SOME SIGNIFICANT FIGURES. ENQRMOUS SHORTAGE IN WHEAT.

Evening Post, Volume XLIX, Issue 115, 16 May 1895, Page 3

SOME SIGNIFICANT FIGURES. ENQRMOUS SHORTAGE IN WHEAT.

Taken in conneotion with the reoent rise -in flour and in wheat, a return -which has been prepared by the Begistrar-General | respecting tbe wheat prospects of the ooming year is significant and important. It is as follows : — " The wheat harvest of 1895 has been, generally good throughout the colony, the' totil yield showing an average of 2432 bußhela per aore. But, as only 148,575 aores were sown in wheat, the orop realised was not more than 3,613,037 bushels, against 4,891,695 bushels in 1894, 8,378,217 bushels in 1893, and 10,257,738 bushels in 1892. Owing to the poor harvest in 1891, the exports of it heat and flour (in equivalent bushels of wheat) for that year were 280,326 bushels only, against 2,709,311 bushels in 1893; while the imports inoreased from 2231 bushels in 1893 to 65.816 bußhels in 1894. Taking an average of 18 years, it is fonnd that, exclusive of the quantity required for seed, the yearly consumption of wheat per head of mean population is 733 bushels. It is held' that this rate is at least one bushel too high (the proportion hist year was 645 bushels) owing to overestimates in the yields returned by farmers in the past. Accepting, then, 6 30 bußhels as the amount per bead required for food, and assuming the mean population for 1895 to be 735,009 persona (inoluding Maoris), it follows that 4,630,500 bushels will satisfy the aotnal food requirements far the year. In addition, seed for, say, 150,000 aores must be provided ; this, at 2 bushels per aore (300,000 bushels), brings up tbe total quantity required in the colony to 4,930,51)0 bushels. The foregoing table shows the wheat orop for 1895 to have been 3,613,037 bushels, to whioh must be added the entity grown by Maoris (estimated at 280,075 bnßhels) and the amount of the 1894 crop still held by farmers (259,747 bushels), making a total of 4,152,8 ! ,9 bushels in the colony. From this it would appear that, unless large stooks are held by grain merohanta, not only is there this year absolutely no wheat available for export, but the oolony may have to import more than half a million bushels of wheat (or an equivalent in flour) to supply the estimated demand. While the wheat orop has fallen from 4,891,695 bushels in 1894 to 3,618,037 bushels this year, it is worthy of Bpecial notioe that the "quantity of last year's orop remaining on hand " with the farmers has likewise fallen from 557,315 to 259,747 bushels ,' a deoreaseofß97,66Bbushels,orattherateofmore than 53 per cent., Betnrns are to hand from Victoria showing that the yield of wheat in that colony for the currant year has been 11,226,809 bushels, against 15,255,200 bushels for the year 1894. Of 148,575 aores in wheal this year, there were no less than 107552 aores in Canterbury and 31,653 acres in Otago. The area in wheat for Canterburj showed a deorease from 174,252 aores it 1891 to 107,352 aores in 1895, and of esti mated proanoe from 3,407,842 bushels tc 2,540,936 bushels. In Otago tho land laic down in wheat in 1895 was about two-thirdi of the quantity for 1894, the reduction beinj

from 53,058 aoroß to 31,653 aorea, The estimated yield fell from 1,161,672 bushels to 830,715 bushelß."