£4,000,000 BOUNTY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18466, 3 August 1934, Page 7

£4,000,000 BOUNTY

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT GOVERNMENT’S DECISION CANBERRA, Aug. 2. The Prime Minister, Mr. J. A. Lyons, in the House of Representatives, in tabling the report of the Royal Commission on wheat, announced that the Government, acting on the recommendation of that commission, was prepared to provide a bounty to growers to the extent of £4,000,000. The commission further recommends that assistance should be provided partly by excise on the flour used in Australia, and partly by Commonwealth funds. The rate of excise should be variable, in order to provide progressively more funds as wheat prices fall, and less funds as they rise. Such rates should be based on the* world parity price of wheat free on trucks at the principal ports of shipment. Mr. Lyons said that the assistance to the growers would be on the basis of the price of 5s a bushel f.o.b. at the principal shipping ports. This amount would increase if the prices fell below 3s at the principal ports and decrease if the prices rose above that figure. _ - The commission’s investigation, he said, showed that the wheat farmers liabilities amount in round figures to £140,000,000 and the replacing of machinery and equipment would cost about £10,000,000.