ENGLISH WHEAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20707, 3 May 1929, Page 11

ENGLISH WHEAT.

A NEW ZEALAND PRECEDENT, (Fsou Ooa Own Corrmfondkot.) . LONDON, March 14 Some discussion has been taking place with reference to English wheat, and Lord Ernie and others have suggested that the wheatgrowing problem would best bo mitigated by a subsidy. Mr A. R. Flint, of Derby, who spent a few years in New Zealand, has written to fhe Times, pointing out that there is a better refnedy, “and one which has been tested by the enterprising Government of • New Zealand” "The method which they adopted was to agree with farmer and miller a fixed price for home-grown wheat graded as to 'qualities. Having agreed the prices, the procedure adopted in the kinema film trade can then be applied, and each miller. J I equ , lretl t 0 Purchase a definite quota °t the home-produced article. As in New Zealand, so here, the farmer can be required to make a return shortly before harvest of his crop expect rations, and upon this the quota can be determined. This system has the enormous advantage that it makes the farmerV return certain, instead of leaving him at the mercy of market prices and middlemen s profits. It would cost the taxpayer nothing.” Another' correspondent, writing to-day. says that such a scheme as that in New ' Zealand would cost the millers something even it not the taxpayers. If the millers agreed to pay the price farmers consider remunerative, they would Paying SBs instead of 44s a quarter, the difference between the market price of English wheat and the generally accepted remunerative minimum. There seems no v way out of the difficulty that the agricultural baby has not only got to be held by, someone, but nursed.”