WHEAT PROTECTION FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22972, 25 February 1938, Page 10

WHEAT PROTECTION FAILS

The Government's policy of making New Zealand entirely self-sufficient in wheat and wheaten products has again failed miserably. In a statement published this mbrning the Minister of Industries and Commerce confesses that "it is necessary to import all North Island requirements." Whether this applies to fowl wheat only or to milling wheat as well is not clear, although it is already certain that large quantities of the North's milling requirements must be purchased abroad. Incidentally these imports for milling and poultry are going to cost North Island consumers several pence a bushel more than the prices fixed for the South Island. The question is how much longer will the Government allow the Canterbury growers to make a fool of its policy and at the same time penalise the consumers of wheat, flour and bread. The growers are given every inducement to do their part. The price is fixed at least a year in advance, allowances are made for rising labour and other costs, the minimum of stress is laid on quality of grain. Very seldom do they respond with a crop sufficient for New Zealand's needs. Last year deliveries were about 2,000,000 bushels short, and this year the estimate is for a shortage of over 3,000,000 bushels. Mr. Sullivan appealed for the planting of 300,000 acres to yield 9,000,000 bushels; the actual area sown was far short of that asked for and the crop is estimated at only 5,730,000 bushels. The deficiency is exceptionally heavy, no doubt partly due to the fact that wheat growing calls for much labour and that the Government's own actions have rendered labour both scarce and dear. Once again Mr. Armstrong's industrial laws have hamstrung Mr. Sullivan's plans for industrial expansion, and once again the work is being done in Australia while New Zealanders are kept on sustenance. On the main point, however, the Government's latest experience with the wheatgrowers should decide it to end a policy that more often than not fails to supply New Zealand with sufficient home-grown .wheat..