THE WHEAT MARKET.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11871, 8 June 1909, Page 2

THE WHEAT MARKET.

REMARKABLE REPORTS

(Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Inquiries made yesterday elicited information as to the state oi the. whea.t market, and if the position is as bail as represented, then a fknir famine would seem to be imminent. It was explained that the reason why flour is dearer in' Auckland than m the south is because practically no wheat is grown m this province, and local millers and bakers liave to pay the cost of transport to Auckland, which, with all incidental expenses, means a considerable item; A gentleman prominently interested m the bakery trade said that deai'^as flour now was. at £12 10s per ton. m Auckland, it ought to be selling at £13 per ton at least, m order to allow millers •a fair margin of profit. The market quotation for wheat m New Zealand was at present the lowest m the World, but it was ivery unreliable to take as a guide, as farmers know their strength and would not sell at that figure, the consequence being that the millers had to pay through the nosei .At. the present time there was a great shortage of wheat throughout tho world, -owing principally to previous non-bread countries, isuch as Japan and Ch.ina, now using bread as a chief article of diet, and. drawing upon the wheat producing countries of the world. The consequence • was that these 'countries -were unable ,to supply the demand as well as , their localmarkets. : It was costing New Zealand millers too much to manufacture flouf at present, and one southerner had found he could make far more money by exporting Wheat than by making it into flour. At, present New Zealand had '$ siirplus of 2,000,000 bushels of- whealj' Avhich .wei^e being heltl tight. Two ships were how on their way out to r New Zea 1 * land, it was stated, arid two Austral ions'; were coming over to buy up every avail-' able bushel of wheat: m New Zeatand. By August next there would m all •-probability be not a bushel left m the D6r; minion, arid flonr 'Would; /a/t least; jump Up to £14 per ton wjth, of course/ a corresponding , increase m the price of bread. \, - GHRISTaHURCH, this day. Mr H. Wood, chairman of , the New Zealand . Fourmillei-s' Association,' seen, to-day re a message 'from Auckland that two Australians have left for New Zealand to buy up all the surplus wheat, that two cargo boats are' on their ■ way out to ship the grain, .. ano^ tlmt by August .nejet there will not be a, particle of wheat left m the country, and flour and bread will strongly advance m price m consequence, said that he had heard of nothirig, of the' sort,., and ho thought that, >if any tilings of the kind was contemplated, those interested; would not have allowed: any information ty leak out before they nad secured the' grain; So far as he was aware, there had been no buying on any BealfL In fact, for "the past, week or two business m wheat ha^i been <of a .hand-to-moutn character. ' He looked upon the information as being of the nature "of a canai'd.or as having been put m circulation by persons who are probably anticipating the dissolulioh' •of the Associntidn and are desirous qf keeping up the price of wheat. Regarding the Association's affairs, Mr Wood said th.at thero was ho nowK { hnl ho could givo for publication.