FARMERS URGED TO HOLD STOCKS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 25 March 1926, Page 6

FARMERS URGED TO HOLD STOCKS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, 24th March. The proposed pooling of wheat supplies by millers was the subject of a report from the Agricultural Committee of the North Canterbury Farmers' Union • Executive, submitted at ! tho meeting of that body to-day. The committee reported as follows:—"That the establishment of. a wheat-buying pool by the millers is. really creating a combination of wheat buyers, which only can be met by a united effort on the part.of wheat growers to hold on for 7s per bushel. The amount of wheat coming in is ,not going to keep the mills going very long, and then the position must be faced and millers must decide whether they will give 7s for local wheat, 8s sacks in for Australian wheat, or shut down their mills.'' In the subsequent discussion it was suggested that the action of the millers closely resembled the formation of a trust, and that their action was, in 'effect, a direct challenge to the growers. Speakers admitted that growers had no such organisation as the millers, but they urged farmers to hold their wheat until they could get 7s per bushel. Considerable discussion followed on the proposal to form a growers' wheat pool for next season, to which farmers should be asked'-'to contribute at the rate of about twopence per bushel for expenses and for the establishment of a.fund which might be used for the assistance of wheat holders in future years, to prevent the breaking of the r.arket by some such organisation. It was urged the price could be stabilised and the acreage in wheat could also be stabilised. In the end a resolution was carried:—"That the question of the organisation of wheat growers be referred to the Agricultural Committee of the union to investigate and report."