AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17254, 2 September 1919, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.

STATE 'CONTROL FAILURE.

HUGE LOSSES ALLEGED.

fFBOK OTTO OWN CQEBESPOSTDENT.]

SYDNEY. Aug. 2T.

Soon after the outbreak of war the Australian Federal Government took charge of the wheat production of the Gommonweallh. _ The 1915-16 harvest went into the first pool, and every subsequent season's output has gone into further pools. An organisation in each State manages that. State's section of the various pools, while the whole business is controlled by the Central Wheat Board, under the immediate direction of the Federal Government.

This pooling organisation has so far handled no less than 480,000,000 bushels (or 13,000,000 tons) of wheat, and anyone who knows what political control means knowe what happened. There has ueen incredible muddling and confusion, jfcirst of all the pooling organisation Md to be created hurriedly out of nothing, and departmentalism laboured heavily over j that task. The shipping fell short, and i storage had to be provided. Thousands and thousands of bushels were lost to the weather. Rain got into the trucks or into the tarpaulin-covered stacks, and there was disaster. Then came the mice, ; millions of them and the pool organisa- | tion literally tottered under this new j demand upon its initiative. It had no sooner got the stacks adequately protected again against rodents and weather, than the weevil introduced himself. He ; was harder to deal with than the other two combined, and he was only eradicated by expensive cleaning machinery. And all the lime petty thieving went on. it is said that stealing by organised gangs has gone on on a huge scale, and that whole stacks have disappeared. ; Only a stock-taking or a clean-up can show the actual loss through weather, Jiests, and thieves; and since the whole thing has been more or less muddled rieht up to now a stock-taki *g is impossible. Careful estimates place the loss at irom ! three-quarters of a million to a million tons— a ton of wheat is worth about £7. The farmers are patiently waiting ior further dividends from the pool. When ! they find that not only is there no more money, but the general pool has to make good this enormous loss, something will no doubt happen.