WHEAT HARVEST PROSPECTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23274, 17 February 1939, Page 10

WHEAT HARVEST PROSPECTS

Importations of wheat this year will again be necessary. So much is clear from the estimates made in Canterbury, with the harvest well under way, and still the Minister of Industries and Commerce hopes to make New Zealand entirely selfsufficient in wheat and wheaten products. The average yield this year is expected to be something like 31 bushels to the acre, the Wheat Committee's estimate of 32.40 bushels being considered by many to be too high. Expert opinion holds that 250,000 acres should be put down in wheat in order to meet the annual requirements of the Dominion, estimated at 8,500,000 bushels, but not since the 1933-34 season have these figures been realised. Last year, with 191,842 acres in cultivation and an average yield of 34.88 bushels to the acre, there was a deficit of more than 3,000,000 bushels which had to be made good by imports; this year, from a smaller area, estimated at 188,900 acres, there is certain to be a lower return and, at a time when funds for imports are being strictly rationed, Mr. Sullivan will again have to seek supplies from overseas. Wheatgrowers are receiving 5s 9d a bushel, practically double world parity, and yet they are unable to maintain production. It is true that plant diseases have affected the harvest to a certain extent, but another contributing factor is that wheat-growing calls for much labour which the Government's own actions have rendered both scarce and dear. On top of all this, the people have to pay high prices for bread, while taxation is also levied to provide a wheat subsidy. It is no wonder there are complaints that a small group of producers, backed by the Government, is extorting an iniquitous toll from the entire consuming public.