SYDNEY WHEAT MARKET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10616, 11 March 1896, Page 4

SYDNEY WHEAT MARKET.

to ray. editor.

Sip.,—My attention • rim* drawn to your Fri« day's issue, in which extracts from a letter of mine to the Chri/itcburch Press were copied, and which were taken exception to by you.

In regard to your quotation from the Eydncj Morning Herald about wheat being sold in the country at tqual to iri b^d, tbis is thoroughly misleading to those unacquainted with the local circntnstauces.

Take, for instance, a wheat-growing centre • like Jerilderie, eoeie 400 miles from Sydney. It cost? very nearly double to rail wheat from Sydney to Jerilderie as it does to take it from the latter plsce to the metropolis. As a rnle, the Jerilderie miller gets the whe»t at equal to the Sydney price, !e»s the railage, but in a scarce year like this, he has to protect himself by giving over the value iest he should have to import later on aod pay double railage rates.

Queensland orders I take no notice of, at they presuppose tbat somebody has already purchased the wheat st lower rates, and is making a profit out of these orders. *

I contend that it is absolutely useless takiDg these quotations as a guide for farmers in New Zealand, as they do not represent the tru« value of wheat in the Sydney market. The easiest way to disillusionise the minds of vendors in New Zeeland ia to send over some wheat to Sydney and judge by results. What wonld be of gome vaine to New Zealand in regard to markets is that tbe Press Association shonld carefully report the changes in the 'Frisco market as bearing on New South Wales and other centres. American wheat is what ha 3to be watched this year, and if Nen Zealand farmers lose sight of this factor their calculations will be ccmpletely out.

Take the last Sydnajr cable, quoting 4s foi American wheat. That price means resalei locally, and is not the c.i.f. importing price. The latest cabled information received laat Friday gives 3s 3d c.ij. as the present basis of offers to Sydney, osriag to a fall in freight* on the American side. That wheat can be landed in the beginning of June, so the New Zealanders wil! require to bestir themselves at once if they intend to secure aßy portion of the trade.

Two of the Sydney mills are now gristing for Melbourne account, which places them ont of the market for some time to come. This is the result of the Victorian Government refusing to allow millers to grist in bond there for their export trade.

|As I faid in my former letter, no business can be done in whist with New Zealand so long as present prices last, and it seems a great pity j that American wheat should have to be imI ported when there h such a large surplus here, I for which an outside market will have to be found later on. If the New Zealand farmers | are asleep, the American corn factors are not. ; When the large orders from Australia began I pouring in, tha Americans raised their price« from 3s 4£d c.i.f. to 3s 10£ d, which latter price stopped business. About 10 days ago, the c.i.f. Sydney quotation from San Francisco dropped to 3s 6d, and now it stands at 3s 3d. The) mean to secure the business if price will buy it. I am, &c, Alexakbeb Davidson. | S.s. Mararoa, March 9. [What we took exception to was not onr correspondent's arguments, but his sweeping conl demoation of ths Press Association quotations, which he. characterised as " sensational and utterly misleading " aud " reckless statements," fee. We quoted from the Sydney Morning Herald to show that the Press Association telegrams were identical in tone with the information published by our contemporary, and proved, we believe, that our correspondent's denunciation of the messages was not warranted bj facts.—Ed. 0. D.T.]