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Feilding Star, Volume XX, Issue 194, 24 February 1899, Page 2

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Ihe bounteous harvest ot the year will plnc« thn country in the fortunate position <>f havijii: an Kxp'irtnbl niarjjin of wh at, variously estimated at from s-ix to ten u.i-tioiis of bushels. TheFe is sonic uncertainty about the i forecasts that have been made, as a ; good deal will depend upon the effect of bad weather during the saving of the crop, but if there be any value in agricultural statistics, it may be expected that New Zealand will this season have produced eight millions of bushels of wheat beyond local requirements, which, at Bay halt a crown a bushel, will mean a million sterling. : Now the v timate return to the farj mer, wh«> is, it should always b« reI member^d, the backbone of the counj try, must be largely governed by the certainty, regularity, and cost of transport of this produce to the market that will absorb it. If it could be handled, we will suppose, by one firm guarantees could be given to ship owners that would ensure a minimum rate of freight, and such regular shipmentH as would considerably reduce intermediate charges.or special charges could be arranged with relative advantages. But such an arrangements wonld mean a wheat " corner," in, which the " operators," and not the producers, would naturally get the * -pull." if, on the other band, the surplus of our harvest is to filter outward as tonnage offers m the regular liners running to time table dates charges must mount, and the profit of the producer correspondingly diminish. Under these circumstances the Government, following the example of some of the other colonies, is doing, if only as an experiment, good work in negotiating for the charter of steamers to load grain at the principal ports of the colony to convey to external markets the surplus of the harvest. The guarantee that only the State can give will secure a minimum rate of freight, as well as effect a saving in interest and charges, and this margin of difference may eventuate in placing the regular export of breadstuff's from the colony on as sound a basis as are the frozen meat and the dairy industries. That would be a fine achievement, and place on a still firmer foundation the agricultural interest, upon which the progress of the colony is so largely dependant. — Post.