BARLEY GROWERS

Evening Star, Issue 20556, 7 August 1930, Page 8

BARLEY GROWERS

SEVERE AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION [Fhoh Oor Parliambntakt Reportsb.] WELLINGTON, August 6. The Barley growers of Marlborough are stated by Mr Healy, the member for Wairau, to bo seriously affected by the proposal to remove the duty from certain classes of this cereal, when imported. There was, he said, serious competition from Australia, and barley was selling in Adelaide at 2s 6d a bushel. It could be landed at Auckland at 3s 6d, which meant that his producers, to compete, would have to accept 2s 3d a bushel, on trucks, at country stations. Mr Linklater (Manawatu): What is your price to-day? Mr Healy explained that the Marlborough farmers had raised barley for New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., under contract at 5s a bushel, but they had been severely treated in the way of rejections, and there was competition from Otago and Canterbury. The rejected barley had been thrown on the market, but Australia, which produced huge quantities, dumped it into the Auckland market, hich they could reach at as cheap a freight as Marlborough farmers. Until the motor age his province was a great producer of chaff, and this could not be landed at Auckland under £8 10s a ton, though Tasmanian chaff was selling there at £B. He had been investigating the position regarding oats in tho North Island, and had found that, whilst New Zealand Algerian oats were selling at 7s a bushel for seed purposes, Tasmanian oats were being used for seed, because the farmers got it at 6s lOd. He hoped tho Government would reco sider ■ the ■ position.