WHEAT GROWERS WATCH MILLERS

Manawatu Times, 25 March 1926, Page 9

WHEAT GROWERS WATCH MILLERS

Suspicious Eye on Baying Pool

MANOEUVRING TO KEEP UP PRICES

[Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, March 24

The proposed pooling of wheat supplies by millers was the subject of a report from the Agricultural Committee of the North Canterbury Farmers’ Union executive submitted at a meeting of that body to-day. The committee reported as follows;

‘‘That the establishment of a wheat-buying pool by the millers is really creating a combination of wheat buyers which only can met by united effort on the part of the wheat-growers to hold on for 7s per bushel. The amount of wheat coming in is not going to keep the mills going very long and then the position must b§ faced and tho millers must decide whether they will give 7s for local wheat and Ss sacks in for Australian wheat or shut down their mills.

In the subsequent discussion it was suggested that the action of the.'millers closely resembled the formation of a trust and tha’t their action was in effect a direct challenge to the growers.

Speakers admitted that the growers had no such organisation as the millers, but they urged farmers to hold their wheat until they could get 7s per bushel. Considerable discussion followed on a proposal to form a growers’ wheat pool for next season to which farmers should be asked to contribute at the rate of about twopence per bushel for expenses, and for the establishment of a fund which might be used for the assistance of wheat holders in future years to prevent the breaking of market by some such organisation It was urged that the price could be stabilised and the acreage in wheat could also be stabilised. In the end a resolution was carried:

That the question of the organisation of wheat-growers be referred to the Agricultural Committee of the Union to investigate and report.