WHEAT PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 33, 9 February 1915, Page 2

WHEAT PRODUCTION

\ INTERESTING DISCUSSION IN i OAMAKU. SIGNIFICANT~STATISTICS (HI TELEGIUPH — I'UESS ASSOCUIION.) OAMARU, Bth February. One result of last Wednesday's con- | ference dealing with the question of increased wheat production; between the committee of the North Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Association and Messrs. W. H Rose (chairman) and W. K. Ireland, representing the Oamaru Merchants' Association, has been a general awakening to the positiou of matters. The A. and P. Association have adopted Mr. Rose's suggestion that a special appeal bo made to all wheat i glowers in the district to "prepare this season as much land as they reasonably can for wheat " In the course of his address before the committee, Mr. Rose quoted the following significant statistics: — Area under wheat in 1910-11— Dominion : 322,167 acres; Waitaki, 34,946 acres; area under wheat in 1914-15— Dominion : 189,567 acres; Waitaki, 18,616 acres, showing a decrease for the Dominion of 41 per cent., and for the Waitaki County of 46 per cent. From December, 1889, to June, 1893, 71,180 four-bushel sacks of wheat had been shipped from Oamaru to Europe; now the export is nil. These figures were given to show the falling-off in the wheat-growing industry, and are rather startling. Mr. Rose, in dealing with the world' 6 wheat problem, mentioned that in 1913 England had to import 5,895,000 tons of wheat and flour, all of which reached her from outside Europe, except some 25,000 tons from Russia. He strongly emphasised the necessity for the British Overseas Dominions increasing their wheat areas this season, if England, in her struggle, is to feed her population, and most of all her soldiers, on the best of bread, in contradistinction to the adulterated stuff Germany is reported to be reduced to. Referring to the price of wheat and flour in view of the admitted shortage in the Dominion, Mr. Rose said that the price should be ruled by the cost of importation from tho cheapest producing market, provided that the speculator be' blocked and import duties removed. This would be fair to growers, ' who would .then be placed on the same footing as growers elsewhere, and at the same time it would satisfy consumers that they were getting "a square deal/ Whatever safeguards were adopted, they must be such as to ensure the household getting this, for after all the great desideratum is bread, the staff of life, as cheap as possible. Mr. Ireland emphasised the great loss to the country should wheat-growing be stopped ; not only would it mean a direct payment of £2,000,000 to import sufficient wheat for the population, but the great dairying industry would be seriously handicapped, and the railway revenue would suffer to the extent of over £50,000 a year for haulage. If the milling industry were destroyed, poultry-raising would probably be practically unpayable ; then all this would lead to a good deal of unemployment.