GREY CLOUDS LIFTING

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1930, Page 8

GREY CLOUDS LIFTING

AUSTRALIAN DEPRESSION

WHEAT, WOOL, AND FACTORY

■WEALTH

(From "Tho Post's" Representative. SYDNEY,'-23rd May. Practically every district of New South "Wales that ■needed, vain has received a soaking and tho , State-wide anxiety has been relieved. North, west, and south steady vain has given crops and pastures a fino start towards a bountiful season. Tho link between the .rainfall _ at Bourkc in the far west, and unemployment in Sydney, may not be obvious to everybody, - but none the less it-exists, and the falls have done much to dispel pessimism. All over the far western districts there is grass where for more than six months the ground has been, as bare as a billiard table. Prices of sheep havo become firmer ancl land values are better." Wool prices, too, are more favourable. Thcso things will moan more employment, both in the.country and the city,.and a lessening of the present financial depression. x Apart from the position which has arisen because Australian trade ledger of imports and exports does not balance, the crux of the economic position here has been the decline in wool prices, and the shrinkage in Australia's wheat harvests; and the biggest job is to increase the total'of the primary produc-tion,-and thereby, of exports. '■ On this task Australia has started in a way which gives confidence. The Commonwealth Government has offered the wheat;growers a Federal pool, with, a guarantee of 4s a bushel, plus eightpence a bushel handling charges; and the Prime Minister, Mr. Scullin, ha 3 mado a uationrwide appeal to Australia, to extend its wheat area by an additional 2,000,000 acres. Throughout! ' the Commonwealth' there is unprecedented activity in the wheat areas, with the promise now of a good season. .; Reports indicate a record cropped area of 18,000,000 acres—striking proof that the fine spirit, of our agriculturists still lives, despite many bitter disappointments and reverses. Here is a tremendous leap forward, which, with favourable conditions, will give Australia a harvest of more than 200,000,000 bushels, and a probable wheat cheque of £50,000,000. And Australia can go on extending its wheat area by millions of "acres for many years. Tho Federal Government has also assisted' 80,000 woolgrowers by prohibiting the export from Australia of stud merino sheep, which policy alone has enabled South Africa to become a serious competitor with Australia in the wool industry, to the extent of about £15,000,000 a year. If and when Mr. Scullin, in his overhaul of the economic question relating to wool production, formulates some scheme for the protection of the pastoral' industry against drought, lower wool prices—if they are to remain—will be counter-balanced by greater production. .. . ■ " ■ Added to the brighter outlook in respect' to primary production" are! the benefits that already are accruing to the secondary industries through tho new .tariff. There are many overseas companies building, or about to build, factories, which, apart from their permanent source of wealth in wages and output, will at the outset provide much employment. .. ■ ; So that out df: the gloom there is shining a new light, radiating hope and confidence. As one writer puts it, in a. stimulating article, "Australia is beiiijr tried by the firo of adversity. She will come out bigger, better, and more prosperous."

There would; seem to bo at last a inoro solid, basis for optimism.-"