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Otago Daily Times, Issue 21264, 19 February 1931, Page 10

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HELPING THE FARMERS. AUSTRALIAN PLANS. (From Oue Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 12. It was only after the dire necessity had been emphasised over and over again that the Federal and St * te , agreed to raise a loan of t 6,000,000 tor the assistance of wheat growers. In the meantime evidence has been accumulating that farmers are on the verge ot starvation because they have thousands ot bushels of wheat which they cannot sell. For instance, one wheat farmer, owner of 1500 bags of wheat, is living on the Government dole. Another is unable to afford to pay for the transport of his wheat to the silos, and he and his family are on the verge of starvation, bull another has 100 acres of wheat still to strip, and he cannot pay to have his stripper repaired. No one will advance him the money, so the wheat is rotting. A fourth is fortunate to the extent that he collects a child endowment of 19s a week. Two years ago he had an income of £4OO a year. AH these men —and there are scores similarly placed—have been denied credit, but, worse than that, they all owe money to the stores and what they possess is mortgaged to the Rural Industries Board, which financed the planting of the last crop, made bigger than usual at the behest of Mr Scullin. Of the £6,000,000 to be raised in Australia —the terms of the loan have yet to he settled—£3,soo,ooo will be utilised for the payment of a bounty of 6d a bushel on all wheat exported before October 31. The remainder will be made available as a loan to the States for the purpose of assisting necessitous wheat growers. It is explained that as far as possible the bounty will be paid direct to the wheat grower. If a wheat grower produced, say, 2000 bushels, and the whole of it was used in local consumption, he would, notwithstanding, be entitled to a bounty on 1500 bushels, that being the proportion of export wheat to the total production. The Minister for Agriculture in New South Wales (Mr Dunn) says that under the proposed scheme the State would not lie in a position to give any further assistance to those farmers who earned the wheat bounty. There were at least 9000 farmers in New South Wales who were in sore straits. The bounty would be of great assistance to those who had reasonably good crops, but it would not in anyway provide sufficient for those in really necessitous circumstances. The Prime Minister assured Mr Dunn that he would see what further assistance could be given to New South Wales, which appeared to ho in a worse position than the other States.

The adoption of the bounty means that the price of wheat and flour for local consumption will be fixed at 6d a bushel above world parity. This will mean an increase in the cost of a loaf, but the increase will be so small that it will not have any material effect on the cost of living. It is estimated that in New South Wales the price of bread will advance not more than a 21b loaf—an infinitesimal amount compared with the relief that the farmers will receive. There is not likely to be any opposition to this. The loan to the States is to be paid back out of revenue in 10 years in 10 equal instalments.