THE WHEAT DUTY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 178, 2 September 1914, Page 8

THE WHEAT DUTY.

OBJECTIONS TO REMOVAL. " -. PARMERS ANXIOUS. , ( . ■ Representatives of the farming community axe somewhat perturbed at the movement in favour of the removal of the duty on wheat imported from Australia. The subject was discussed at a conference which this morning between the Farmers' Union and other bodies.

The chairman (Mr C.-H. Elisor) said that it would be a very dangerous thing to tamper .with the duty on wheat. Wheatgrowers needed a certain amount of protection, and they would have to have a higher price for wheat than in the past, because wool, flax, and certain other farmers' products were possibly going to be unsaleable. He moved— the Government be asked to appoint a Canterbury wheat-grower on the Food Commission." Mr George Sheat seconded the motion. If the duty were taken off, > T ew Zealand was not going to produce its own foodstuffs. .More wheat was being grown this year than would Qthei"wise have been the case, indeferenee to the Premier's request. Some people seemed to think that wheat could be grown in minutes, but farmers knew that it took two years to get a paddock fit for it. The unemployed had proposed to use fern and bracken land, but that was a ridiculous proposition. In regard to the price of wheat, he believed that it would probably have to be controlled. Some people seemed to think that they were going to get fabulous prices for their wheat and food crops. That Avas not the spirit in ■which they should approach the subject. The farmers should be satisfied with a fair price at "this time. If they Vere commercial enough to fatten on the woes of their nation, then God help them. They should grow foodstuffs for the meu who were fighting for the nation, and for their very existence. Mr Evans said that the cost of distribution, and not the cost of wheat, was mainly responsible for the rise in the price of food. After some further discussion, Mv L. C. Gardiner, of the Sheep-owners' ( Union, said that it must be remembered that most of the wheat Avas already in the hands of the millers, who had bought at 3/6 or 3/9, and they were making a big profit on that wheat. That was what was sticking in the people's minds, and it was a fact which could not be blinked. The motion was carried.