WHEAT FOR NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 119, 16 November 1914, Page 8

WHEAT FOR NEW ZEALAND

SUPPLY FROM CANADA INDIAN SOURCES UNWORKABLE. Definite arrangements have been made by the Government to bring over tho shipment of Canadian wheat which the Prime Minister announced some days ago that he had arranged for. A steamer named the Hesteros has been chartered, and she is now being loaded at St. John's with 250,000 bushels, and will sail for New Zealand at an early date. "I think," said Mr. Massey, speaking to a Post reporter, "that we shall be able to arrange for some to come down from the western side, from Vancouver, so as to get it here at an earlier date. The earliest time at which any of it may be expected to arrive is the New Year, but we might get some from the western side a little earlier. About 250,000 bushels will be brought in the Hesteros, and the other ship, whose name is not yet known, will bring a comparatively small quantity. So far as I am able to judge, the arrangement is exceedingly satisfactory. The wheat will arrive just about the time that it js required. I am not able to say at present whether any will come after that contract has been fulfilled. We shall be guided by circumstances as they arise." " We have found," he went on to say, " that the Indian wheat on wln'ch we were relying is not suitable for New Zealand. It requires special cleaning machinery, which so far we have nob got in New Zealand. As a matter of fact, the primitive methods of threshing employed in India make it necessary for Indian wheat to be washed. My opinion is that the Indian wheat is threshed as it was, in the time of Abraham, treaded out by oxen, and special cleaning machinery would have to be imported if we accepted wheat from that source." What will be the effect of the importations on the prices? Mr. Massey was asked. " The Government is not going to make any profit out of it at all," replied Mr. 'Massey. "We will probably make a slight, loss, but under the circumstances it is our duty to bring the wheat here, and, supply the population with the food that is required. Private individuals are also importing, and we have given them every encouragement and facility for doing so."