WHEAT CROPS

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 10

WHEAT CROPS

DIFFICULTY OF HANDLING. [Special to the ' Star.'] CHRISTCpURC-H, March 8. It appears as if the situation with regard to the sale and delivery of the present wheat crop is likely to be acute beforo very long. The financing and storage of the crop at fixed prices with growers wanting to sell as soon as they thresh, and with millers seeing no necessity to lock up capital in a largo quantity of wheat, or to pay storage upon grain they will not require for pome littlo time to come, was found to have but one result. The millers, having laid in stocks, are now holding off buying, and .as the harvest is now practically complete in North Canterbury, and threshing going, there is a large and increasing quantity of grain available which growers are anxious to dispose of. The brokers cannot deal with the wheat until they receive purchase warrants from the miller, and these aro apparently not now forthcoming. Another difficnlfy has cropped tip, though it may not bo a serious one. Brokers who have purchased wheat for the !North Island mills have just been informed- that they cannot ship it without a permit. Tins is, no doubt, a precautionary measure to conserve shipping space: but it adds one more detail to the complicated method of handling the wheat crop.