A KNOTTY PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 117, 21 May 1925, Page 4

A KNOTTY PROBLEM

Mr. Nosworthy, as Minister of Agriculture, probably more than anyone else, realises the difficulty of solving the wheat problem. On the one hand, it is the policy of the Government to rely upon the Dominion's own resources in the matter of wheat, and, on the other, it is equally the duty of the Government to protect the public from exploitation. Who else is there but the Government to stand between the unorganised consumer and the organised producing and manufacturing interests? The self-reliance idea is admirable, if not imperative, considering the isolated position,of New Zealand. But its realisation may be made too costly if the object is to extract the uttermost farthing of profit for .1 section or sections of the people at the expense of all the people, rather than a reasonable margin between cost of production and sale of a commodity so vitally necessary as wheat. The Minister has succeeded in inducing millers to pay and growers to accept such prices for wheat as shall ensure no rise in the current price of bread-; and at, Iho same time to seen re fixed prices for bran and pollard, • themselves required for IHCtluctiuu pi pthev. loads. The

farmer is protected against competition from without by the duties on wheat and the expense of bringing it here; the miller is to be further safeguarded against Australian flour by operation, if necessary, of a dumping duty or even an embargo. In the meantime the price of bread in New Zealand is to be stable at current rates, irrespective of fluctuations in the world's wheat price.. The consumer will obtain no advantage from any decline in that price, nor will he expect to pay any more if it makes a substantial advance, providing the Dominion wheat-growers fulfil the expectations of the Minister and produce sufficient for the country's needs. In the difficult circumstances with which the Minister has had to contend, the arrangement, although far from perfection, appears to be the best that could be devised. It now remains for wheat farmers and flouraillers to accord fair treatment to the consumer and to endorse the Minister's action in that way.