WHEAT PRODUCTION AND CONTROL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21993, 30 June 1933, Page 5

WHEAT PRODUCTION AND CONTROL

TO THE EDITOR.

g lK _The very important matter of wheat production and supply to millers requires some ventilation, as a position has developed under which a trust or monopoly exists, and the consumer has to pay far too much. It will be just as well if we all know where we stand. Evidently the Wheat Board in I}ew Zealand has the absolute and exclusive right to purchase and fix prices.for wheat or milling quality. The wheatgrower is compelled to accept or, sell only through the board and its authorised agents at a fixed price and fixed charges, irrespective of whether these charges are just or unjust. Evidently ihe wheat is sold only to members of_ the Floui’millers’ Association and Distributors, Ltd.,' who must conform to a rationing System of output based on each mills capacity, and also to a fixed price for output. Failing this a mill is penalised altogether, and compelled to close up. We have monumental examples ot. tins' in ‘ different localities in the Dominion. In some cases the quota* payment amounts to anything between £2O and £4O per week per closed mill. These charges are evidently paid by. Distributors, Ltd., and passed on to the public, together with all or any losses on surplus. Dominion exports, which this year will be not less than approximately £250,000, so Yhat Jie consumer can estimate apparently what this stabilising system is costing. Why should wheatgrowers only be subsidised in this manner? Why have they been especially singled out in Preference to other producers and spoon-fed to this extent 51 The whole position should be explained or exposed. Surely this country s eeofirraphical isolation, should be a ent protection to its wheatgrowers. | lour in New Zealand is £l4 .per ton, and the wheat surplus value is roughly 90s per ton, ' Why cannot our own folk get these pickings, and how long are we going to allow this to continue?—l am, etc.. Common Sense.