THE INDIAN WHEAT TRADE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7228, 30 April 1884, Page 7

THE INDIAN WHEAT TRADE.

A corespondence between the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, the Secretary of State for India, the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, and the Directors of the Great Indian Peninsula Eailway Company lias just been issued on the subject of the rates charged by Indian railways for the conveyance of wheat and seeds. In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for India, the Directors of the Great Indian Peninsula Eailway defend the current rates for the conveyance of wheat to Bombay, arguing that India is incapable of supplying any considerable proportion or the wants of Europe, that the condition of Indian wheat is inferior, and that there is so much margin between the price of wheat in the inland markets and the price at the principal stations, and also between that price and the value in London, that any slight decrease in the railway rates would make no appreciable difference in the cost or tend to increase the quantity brought to the railway company. In a long and elaborate reply, every point of the railway company’s contention is denied by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce, and it is re-affirmed that with proper and reasonable facilities the Indian wheat trade would assume far larger proportions than at present. As to the suggestion that in wheat India cannot compete with America because of the facilities afforded by the latter country for the transportation of the article by rail and water carriage, the Bombay Chamber refer to the history of the trade since railways were opened in India to prove that India is as much a ■wheat-exporting country as America, and that the great strides made in the trade during the last few years are to a great extent, if not entirely, due to railway extensions. The present total yield of wheat m India is about Gi million tons, of which about one million tons are available for export. If to this present yield a further c* million tons be added to the quantity th . c . country is capable of producing, and which would, with increased railway facilities before long be produced, there would be a total yield of 13 million tons. As to the proportion of this yield available ior export, it is a well-known fact that the consumption of wheat in India is not large, tne bulk of the inhabitants subsisting on cheaper staples. The Bombay Chamber neueyes that a very large proportion of we tota! yield would be exported, and cf , requirements of England could long be more than supplied bv India

alone, if the producing districts were opened out and cheap communication between them and the coast established.