WHEAT SUPPLY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 December 1925, Page 5

WHEAT SUPPLY.

GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL IT. LARGE IMPORTATIONS NECESSARY. (by TELEGRAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION.) ' WELLINGTON, Dec. 7. A statement regarding the wheat position was made by the Mmistei ioi Agriculture (Hon. AY . Nosworthy). •‘ln May last,” Mi" Nosworthy said, “the Government gave consideration to an agreement between the millers and the orowers by which it was arranged that" if protected against fluctuation in outside markets, millers would undertake to pay for wheat grown m the Dominion during 1925-26, the prices being 6s sd, 6s 7d and 6s 9d, f.0.b., sacks extra, for Tuscan, Hunters and Velvet wheat respectively. The Government agreed to this proposal on the understanding that approximately sufficient wheat for local requirements would be orown in the Dominion. There is every reason for believing that growers would have produced the necessary supply, but adverse weather conditions throughout the winter and spring have prevented the sowing of large areas, and _it is now inevitable that large quantities of wheat must be imported in 1926. “A meeting of millers, growers poultrymen and merchants last week resolved to ask the Government to take control of the market by purchasing and reselling both local ana imported wheat, and this request has now been considered by Cabinet. After careiul confederation the Government has agreed to this proposal, and regulations to give effect thereto will shortly be gazetted. , , . ■ “Control along the lines decided upon will not involve any increase m the prices of flour and bread, and will allow of a reduction in the prices of bran and pollard of £1 per ton. Fluctuations in prices will be eliminated, and growers will be assured of the prices agreed upon. These prices, it may be added, are at the present time below the importing parity. . “The milling industry will be enabled to carry, on throughout the year with resultant advantages in the matter of supplies of bran and pollard. The arrangement, too, will eliminate to a large extent the unnecessary transference of supplies from south to _ north at a time when local production, is materially short of our, national needs, and poultrv wheat will be made available in both the North and South Islands at the lowest possible rates. The proposal.* therefore, has substantial advantages. and is more particularly desirable during a period of world scarcity and speculation.”