WHEAT SUPPLIES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17644, 23 November 1917, Page 4

WHEAT SUPPLIES.

People in the trade have known for a long time that a shortage of wheat was threatened and they endeavoured to stimulate the Government into action so that public inconvenience, or nioro serious difficulties, might bo obviated. Tho Government has not been altogether idle, for it has arranged for supplies from Australia. But in this matier, as in so many others of importance, tho Government has been distressingly slow and timid. Months and months before anything was done it was known that local supplies of wheat were short of requirements and that stocks would have to ba reinforced from elsewhere. It was also known to everybody that Australia possessed enormous quantities of grain. The harvest was, indeed, so large as to be a positive embarrassment, and it is inconceivable that any appreciable obstacles existed in tho way of New Zealand purchasing on easy terms. But the Governmenti seemed determined to wait, and then when a belated contract was made the strike interfered with transport. The position now is that Australian wheat s coming across in a slow, uncertaiu manner, and local stocks are running unusually low. Without wishing to be alarmists we may say, what is well known to tho trade, that wheat in Canterbury is not in sufficient quantity to keep the mills going, and, in fact, only prompt action by tho Government can prevent an early serious shortage. The general difficulty throughout tho Dominion is aggravated in tho case of Canterbury by failure on the part of the authorities to ensure the distribution according to requirements of. imported wheat as it arrives from the Commonwealth. The truth appeal's to be that Auckland is securing advantages at the expense of the South Island. The war regulations forbid publication of movements of oversea vessels, so that we are unable to go into particulars, otherwise we could show how inequitably the ui.eat is being distributed and how unfairly this part of New Zealand is being treated. If millers could make their own arrangements they might buy from tho Australian Government, but then they would have to pay more than the New Zen'land Government has paid, and when, freight and duty wore added they would be unable to sell flour at tho fixed price. Moreover, importation is forbidden except with the consent of the Minister of Customs, and that means circumlocution which is like sand in tho cogwheels of commerce. Past errors are proving expensive, and though they cannot now be remohied their effects may be palliated by intelligent methods. The loss of valuable time has created a situation that is rapidly becoming acute, and it. seems necessary to agitate for ouieker supplies. At all events, tho public of Canterbury and of any other parts of the Dominion adversely affected should insist upon an equitablo distribution of cargoes. The reasonable thing for the Government to do—the only reasonable and sensible thing, in fact —is to see that all wheat on at rival from Australia is landed at" tho various ports according to> the varying requirements of the community. As it is at present, Auckland is favoured by securing wheat which ought to be brought to Lyttelton.