The Sun SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1916. THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 896, 23 December 1916, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1916. THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

The wheat question has been pretty freely ventilated during the past week, and one or two facts are beginning to stand out more prominently than they did at first. Various estimates and opinions have been given regarding the cost of production. No two farmers reach the! same result, mainly because the con-' ditions vary so much. Obviously the; small farmer who does all his own! work can produce cheaper at a time| like the present when labour is 1 scarce. But it is important to bear in mind that the small men cropping! from 50 to 100 acres of wheat would not produce anything like the quantity required. The problem to be solved is how to arrange for an area of not less than 250,000 acres to be sown in wheat next season. Unless | the men who are in the habit of put-i ting in anything up to 1000 acres can be induced to do so again there must J be a shortage quite apart from the; fact that a small farmer who likes i to work late and early can make money out of five-shilling wheat. The Minister of Agriculture in an interview with our Wellington correspondent expresses doubts as to the practicability of the plan first siig-l gested by The Sun, that the farmers should be asked to tender for wheatgrowing. Wc think that if Mr MacDonald looks into the matter he will find that the difficulties arc more apparent than real. We do not know what price the Board of Trade is going to decide upon, but for the' sake of argument let us put it at 5/0. j There can hardly be more than 3000 wheat-growers in the Dominion, and most of them are in Canterbury andj |Otago. What is to prevent the Min-J j ister sending each of them a printed; contract form to till in, stating the I I area they are prepared to sow in re-! j turn for a guaranteed minimum price] of 5/6 for milling wheat of a fair average quality at the nearest railway station? In return for the j guarantee the fanner would have to | consent to Ihe inclusion of a penalty j I clause which would operate if hc| j failed to sow the area he contracted I for. One advantage of this system! j would be that it would enable the! Minister to learn at the earliest possible date the total area that would he sown. Unless lie adopts some such expedient we do not see how he will be any better off after the Hoard of Trade's recommendation is made than before. We lake it that Hie Minister's object is, first to secure the ',roduclion of sufficient wheat, | and second to secure it at a reasonable price. It does not follow that Ihe Board of Trade's decision in itself will achieve this. It would be | unfortunate if in its determination j to prevent the fainter from accumulating any war profits, a course of action were adopted which killed ■ i wheat-growing in New Zealand. It | seems to us that a more rational method of handling the situation is to give the farmer the opportunity of making a fair profit and appropriate anything over and above 'ilhat for the Slate. Finally, lest the ,! farmer should have a grievance ■ i about being singled out for special j treatment in this respect, a similar policy should be pursued in respect .t to his critics, and anyone who is I doing well as the result of the war.