The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1926. DISAPPOINTED WHEAT GROWERS.

Evening Star, Issue 19443, 29 December 1926, Page 6

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1926. DISAPPOINTED WHEAT GROWERS.

Whatever holiday makers, especially those who have tried camping out, may think of tho weather, the man on the land has even less cause to take it philosophically. All the rain that has fallen within the last six days cciuld very well have’ been done without by the farming community. Crops were at a stage at which a spell of warm, dry weather was needed to mature them, having earlier in tho season had ample moisture for tho requirements of growth. From some parts of Canterbury there are reports of crops having been “ laid ” by the rain, and, as crops are exceptionally heavy this year, and M there has been a particularly large area sown in wheat in Canterbury and southwards, tho risks and tribulations of the farmer are again being illustrated. This particularly applies to the grain grower, but graziers and dairy farmers could easily have done with much less rain. So frequent have been the showers during spring and early summer that the grass was watery and soft and far from ideal for the fattening of stock or for maximum butterfat production. Too much rain spoils tho holiday maker’s pleasure, but it directly threatens the farmer’s livelihood.

Up to the present the wheat grower appears to have been worrying less this season over the chances of a big liarvest than over the prospect of being able to market it profitably. On Friday last, just as the inopportune break occurred in the weather, the mid-Can-terbury executive of the Farmers’ Union held yet another meeting at Ashburton. At a meeting held not long previously the need for further Government intervention to protect the New Zealand wheat industry from Australian competition had been emphasised, and in the interim deputations waited on the Acting Prime Minister and on the Minister of Agriculture, armed with a resolution requesting the Government to place an embargo on the importation of flour, or in the alternative that the duty on outside flour be increased by 25s per ton. The deputation reported to Friday’s meeting that it had returned disappointed. Especially so was this the case in respect to the attitude of the Hon. Mr Hawken. When he was asked by Mr Leadley whether he considered wheat growing essential in New Zealand, the Minister replied “ No,” adding that Cabinet thought it desirable that sufficient wheat should be grown locally for the dominion’s own requirements, hut “farmers were not to get away with the idea that it was essential, as it Could he imported from other countries.” When the deputation urged that dumping by Australian millers was justification for the imposition of the higher duties already authorised by Parliament to apply in such a case, Mr Hawken told the farmers that the onus lay with them to show that dumping was going on, for his own investigations showed that however the Australian millers might be exploiting the Australian consumer, the price they quoted for export to New Zealand was the world’s parity for flour, in which case the charge of dumping could not lie. Members of the deputation then sought to collect cadence to sustain their case, and went to the Customs Department for figures >• dating to flour entries. But tho Cnsi jins Department repulsed them, pleading that all its business was confidential. Friday’s meeting at Ashburton passed a resolution affirming that “ the onus of proving that dumping is going on is on the Government, and not on the farmers, as the Government, with its various departments, is in tho position to get the information more readily and more accurately than any farming organisation.” It is not surprising that such expressions of opinion were heard as that “ the farmers had lost one of their best friends when the portfolio of Agriculture was transferred from Mr Nosworthy to Mr Hawken,” or that “the Government had completely changed from what it was in the late Mr Massey’s day." One practical suggestion made at the meeting was that wheat growers must either got rid of tho Arbitration Court in so far as it impinges on their particular industry, or grow something else I than wheat. The Canterbury wheat growers asked the Government to investigate closely the alleged dumping by Australian flour millers. What would be much more to tho purpose would be to ask the Government to investigate thoroughly the effect of Arbitration Court awards on the wheatgrowing industry. It was stated by one grower that the cost of wheat production was between 5s and 5s lOd per bushel, and that he was prepared to put before anyone the actual figures from which this result was deduced. It was also stated that it would bo necessary to produce wheat at 4s fld per bushel to compete with Australian importations in the coming season unless the Government gave the New Zealand commodity further protection by means of the Customs duties. If these figures are correct, the Government would certainly be failing in its duty to itself, to the farmers, and to the community as a whole, of it did not thoroughly examine the costs of wheat production in New Zealand, and what factors are contributing to their assumed excessiveness.