Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4700 DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1915. THE WHEAT SHORTAGE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9988, 26 January 1915, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4700 DAILY. TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1915. THE WHEAT SHORTAGE.

Recent statements made bv the Prime Ministei and the several Government officials who are charged with the duty of collecting the necessary data have made it clear that there is not only a shortage in the wheat supplies for the present season, but that there is every piospect of the shortage continuing and becoming even more pronounced after the incoming harvest is exhausted. Mr Malcolm Eraser, the Government Statistician, in reporting to the Government on the position early in the month, made the following very significant statement"Taking the stocks as ascertained on "November 18 last, the Government importations during January and February, 1915, and an estim-l ate for the current wheat harvest, | wheat stocks in New Zealand will, i' estimate, be exhausted by about the j end of November, 1915. Ry about Sep-1 tembcr 8, 1915, stocks will lie below those of last November, which were 20 per cent less than those- of November, 1913." Mr Eraser went on to say' that "It would be inadvisable to allow j stocks to get below those of November : last, and it will probably, therefore, be' necessary to arrange for importations to come in from the middle or beginning of September." As an alternative suggestion, Mr Fraser advises that further importations of wheat should | be arranged for about the end of next j month, so as to make the supply morei plentiful while the new wheat harvest j is coming in. DECREASING AREA CROPPED. ! In view of the Prime Minister's tion it may be taken for granted that the Government will not be unmindful of its duty to the country, and that it will tako such steps as will ensure a •

continuance of the necessary supplies of foodstuffs until such times as we are in a position to provide for our own requirements. But we do not appear to have yet grasped the very serious nature of the predicament in which we find ourselves—a predicament which should not have been allowed to have occurred, hut which, having been brought about, should be avoided in the future. Circumstances which cannot by any stretch of imagination be described as uncontrollable have arisen that have caused a growing diminution in the wheat harvests of New Zealand. Year after year the area placed under wheat has grown less and less and the amount of grain harvested has sensibly fallen off, as is proven by the following figures taken from the official records: Total Acres bushels

Although as a result of the Prime Minister's representations a larger area is under crop this year, the yield is not expected to be as good as last season, and most certainly it will not be anything like equal to our own requirements. The estimated consumption of wheat, or rather its flour equivalent, is six bushels per head of the population per annum, and another 400,000 or 500,000 bushels is required for seed purposes. It follows, therefore, that for 1912-1913 the harvest fell short oi requirements (the population on the 31st December, 1912, being estimated at 1,052,627) by at least 1,500,000 bushels, and for 1913-1914 (tho population then being estimated at 1.147,104) by another 2,000,1)00 bushels, allowing only 400,000 bushels for seed requirements. These figures disclose a very serious state of affairs, and unless something is done to arrest the marked tendency of farmers to give up cropping, we shall be reduced to the position of a grain importing State, when we are actually able to grow all and more than we need for our own requirements.

A STATE-GUARANTEED PRICE. With wheat-growers the trouble appears to he that they cannot get a sufficient supply of reliable labour, and this is more particularly the case with harvest hands. Some instructive passages on this line occur in the report presented to Parliament by the Cost of Living Commission set up by the Mackenzie Administration. One farmer, for instance, said that in his district alone there were hundreds of acres of crops lyng out that would never be got in through the shortage of hands, and this same gentleman stated further that the farmers were selling off their teams and giving up cropping on account of the shortage of labour. The labour difficulty might be got over with the exercise of a little common sense on the part tff the Labour-Socialists who, like Messrs Robertson and Veitch on the Commission, so strenuously oppose assisted immigration of farm hands, although the prospect for the present rear is not too good and the war is making im migration next to impossible. But something more is needed to give wheat-growing the necessary fillip, and we are strongly of the opinion that the Government should take time by the forelock and make it part of their policy for the next season or two at least to guarantee every wheat-grower not only a market for his crop but a minimum rate per bushel for all that he markets. In view of the fact that the Government is now paying 6s or 6s 3d per bushel for the grain it is landing, it is probably not going too far to suggest that the farmer should be guaranteed at least 5s or 5s 6d per bushel for all the wheat he produces next season. There is every evidence that there is a world shortage of wheat and that with its continuance high prices must rule. If we are not able to grow for export, we ought to at make sure that we are growing enough for our own requirements. In the alternative the Government might offer a bonus for every bushel provided over and al>ove the present season's crop.

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