THE WHEAT POSITION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 30 January 1926, Page 6

THE WHEAT POSITION.

how IT AFFECTS THIS ISLAND. v ..orrcspoiKlcr.t goes into figures with, regard to the Dominion wheat out look, as follows: — The Canterbury farmer wants a fr_ : market to sell his wheat at the highest nrieo but at. the same time wants Government protection of Is 3d per bushel that he might exploit his full fedora.. How is tais worked out. v 1) t ll estimated wheat crop is four million bushels, practically all inA .South Island. The farmer urged the Go\ eminent for control and agreed to sell ■it 6s sd, but on reflection thought he would do better without control; asked the Government to reverse their decision, which it agreed to. lho Gov eminent, however, still leaves the duty w na per bushel on imported wheat. Since New Zealand wants eight million bushels for its requirements (that is hist double the present New Z< ealand crop) New Zealand buyers will have to import 50 per cent of their requirements and pav Is 3d on every bushel "o imported; therefore the Canterbury farmer will get the full benefit ot that Is .‘id duty because the value of his wheat will be increased to that extent. For instance, the price of Australian wheat to-day is 6s 6d per bushel in Australia: it costs Is a bushel to freight it over, plus Is 3d duty, makes the cost in Wellington, Auckland or other poits Ss 9d. The freight and sacks from south to north is, say, 9d per bushel, therefore the Canterbury farmer can net Ss per bushel and still be as cheap as the Australian; in other words, the Canterbury farmer adds the duty ol 1= ::d Oil to the price of his wheat. < “ his crop of four million bushels at Is -cl per bushel this works out a nice little extra profit of a quarter of a million St Who S pavs the Canterbury farmer this quarter of a million? Mostly farmers in the north and the general public. For .instance: (a) The poultry farmer on his requirements of wheat. If the flutv on Australian wheat were suspended the cost of importation would bo 6s (id plus Is freight to c.i.f., making cost 7„ 6d c.i.f. North Island ports. That would bo the basis on which the poultry farmer would buy his supplies. it is' estimated that nearly a million and a half bushels are required for poultry purposes, so the many thousand poultry farmers 'of New Zealand contribute £5)3,750 as an unnecessary tax on their industry, in order to gratify the. gieed of the comparative handful of liis brother farmers who grow wheat in Canterburv. On a rough calculation, it could be taken that three-fifths of the poultry production is iy the. Norti Island, which means the North's share of the Canterbury farmers’ tax on wheat alone is the modest sum of £56,250. ' „ (b) The dairy and poultry farmers jointly contribute a further share. Thc quantity of bran and pollard consumed in Hew' Zealand yearly is lv 60,000 tons. According to the tariff the dutv on offal imported is £2 10s per ton, but last year the Government temporarily reduced the duty to £1 per ton. Assuming the Government elec s to charge the lesser amount, the N:cw Zealand farmers will contribute a further £60,000 in the way of duty on this offal, for the bulk of it will have to be imported, as whatever quantity is manufactured in Now Zealand wiii naturally be valued on the imported basis. . In addition to this extra price, there is a further serious injustice imposed on the farmer's: that is a serious danger of the supplies of offal becoming short. It is a well known fact that Australia likes to export flour and retain the offal as far as possible for its own domestic requirements. When drought conditions prevail in Austral. 1 :, the demand for offal sharply rises, so that the quantity available for export would correspondingly diminish, and i" some periods the shortage lias been so acute in Australia that not only have thev been unable to export a single bag, but have in turn been importing from New Zealand. Hence the farmers who use bran and pollard are going to be hit first of all in an increased price foi certain, and exposed to a further contingency of having their essential supplies jeopardised. Whilst that prospect will prove quite pleasing to the Canterbury wheat grower, it will produce quite a different picture to the many thousands of dairy farmers, particularly iii the North Island, more especially those who are dependent for bran supplies in order to maintain the necessary ration for the dairy cows under test, whilst the poultry farmer who is the larger user of pollard, and the housewife as well, will have the pleasure nor only of paying an extra rate for this article but "also facing the prospect of supplies being jeopardised as well. It might be suggested that in view of the serious shortage immediately the New Zealand crop is off the market the Government will reconsider the position, but that is just precisely the state of affairs which would play into the hands of the wheat growers of Canterbury, because that will create an artificial market for them enabling them thereby to “steal” the extra quarter of a million out of the New Zealand public. The only course open for the Government, in the interests of the public as a whole arid more particularly the very much larger northern farming interests, is immediately to suspend the duty at any rate on wheat so as to permit of these free market conditions which we have heard so much about in Canterbury lately and avoid tlio unnecessary extra tax of a quarter of a million going from the pocket of the public to that of the Canterbury wheat grower.