FIXING PRICES OF WHEAT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 29 June 1939, Page 9

FIXING PRICES OF WHEAT

“AX INIQUITOUS SYSTEM” limited PrenH Association i AUCKLAND. 28 1 1 i June. ! A prophesy that the day is not far, distant when the world’s wheal price. 1 will be decided “not in bedlam on the* ( Chicago Wheat Pit" but by some inter-! national tribunal. was made by Mr j J. B. Stratton, one of the biggest wheat} growers and sheep breeders in Australia, in an interview to-day. •'The present system of arriving at the price of wheat is iniquitous.” he j said. “It is controlled by speculators ; in the wheat pit whose only knowledge} of the grain is its relation to dollars ! A visit to the pit was a revelation to! me. Gamblers appeared to go ber- ! Mr Stratton contends that the price! of wheat must be stabilised in the in- j terest of both the consumer and the producer. It was all wrong, he said, j that gamblers should be in a position j to send prices soaring or be capable j of nn enormous downward thrust—to below production price. The time had ! come for an alteration of the system, and there was a strengthening opinion i abroad that stabilisation was at hand. 1