Page 12 Advertisements Column 2

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20630, 31 July 1930, Page 12

(Published by Arranßemcnt.) TIIE WHEAT INDUSTRY. STABILISATION OH SPECULATION. The occasional outcry against existing duties on wheat ami Hour emanates from a comparative few. This complaint, however, is taken up and amplified 11v many who arc unable to separate the wheat from the chaff of the specious arguments employed to attack an industry of vital importance to New Zealand. The. violent lluctuations that would he experienced with an open market for wheat and flour might possibly suit, tho speculating 'inporter, hut, the regular consumers of wheat and allied products would bis fat worse off in the long run than under tho present stabilised arrangement whereby whea [growers are enabled t<> produce the Dominion's wheat requirements without loss to themselves. Certainly at the present time the world's wheat vaiues have slumped owing to over-production, but history will assuredly repeat itself and oversens prices will again soar, as prices realised in other countries are well below the cost of production and less wheat will be put down in seasons that follow. In this relation it is interesting to note that a cable from Washington, dated July 21, stales that Senator 'I liomas has asked President Iloovcr to call an International Conference of representatives of wheat-growing countries to consider a plan to bring about a worldwide curtailment of wheat production. Now Zealand already imports more than it should for its economic good, yet in certain quarters tho argument is put forward that the New Zealand wheat, industry should he closed down and this country should become dependent on overseas supplies of wheat, flour, bran and pollard. It is impossible to believe that those who put forward this argument have tho national welfaie of this country at heart, especially in view of the satisfactory manner in which tho Now Zealand Wheat Industry has been stabilised.