BIG PLAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20964, 1 March 1930, Page 10

BIG PLAN.

STABILISING WHEAT. AUSTRALIA MOVES. (Pros: Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 20. The' main idea behind the big wheat pool proposals that have been made by the Commonwealth Government and approved by the growers is the early stabilisation of the industry, which, of late, has been passing, through troublesome times. It is also hoped to encourage an increase in the area placed under wheat. The existing system of marketing wheat leaves much to be desired owing to the overlapping in selling and buying, chartering and insuring, and in the various stages of the process of selling the crop. On the overseas market a multiplicity of sellers has tended to result in the weak holder depreciating the value of his produce. On the local market, millers in all States undercut on each other below association prices on which the price of bread was based, with the consequence on one hand that the producer did not leceive the full value of his produce, and on the other the consumer did not necessarily receive the benefit of the nudercutmg of flour prices.

The Federal Minister of Markets (Mr Maloney) has pointed out that buyers throughout the world are highly organised and to bo assured of the fullest reward for their labours, producers must meet them on equal terms by highly organised methods of selling. That was why a compulsory pool was proposed by the Government. Voluntary pools covering only portions of the country could not bo expected to give satisfactory results. Considering the present unsatisfactory outlook of the world’s markets, and taking into account the violent price fluctuations that have beset the wheat industry in recent years, the Government lias deemed it advisable to take immediate action to ensure some greater and moie definite form of security to the grower than he has been enjoying of late. The proposal is not for Government control of the wheat marketing, but for full control by the growers of their own wheat The Commonwealth Government needs the co-operation of the States before it can bring about a compulsory pool to cover the whole of the Commonwealth, as its powers are limited. Still, it would be able to control interstate trade and export, and therefore it is likely that the States, recognising this, will be only too willing to work hand in hand with the Federal authorities. It is safe to predict that there will be tremendous opposition from vested interests. One very important consideration from the growers’ point of view is the willingness of the Federal Government to guarantee a price of 4s a bushel at the railway siding, as this works out at 4s 8d a bushel, f.o.b. The States will be asked to assist by bolding ballots of all the wheat growers, and if the ballot is favourable there will be no delay in establishing a national pool, which will bring Australia into line with the other great wheatgrowing nations of the world.