EMBARGO AGAINST WHEAT

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 15

EMBARGO AGAINST WHEAT

TARANAKI FARMERS TO PROTEST. EFFECT ON THE PORK INDUSTRY. A protest against the system of sliding scale duties operating in New Zealand against the importation of wheat and flour from Australia was made by Mr. S. Vickers at the executive meeting of the North Taranaki branch of the Farmers’ Union held in New Plymouth yesterday. The system, said Mr. Vickers, was iniquitous. Jn New Plymouth, he continued, it was almost impossible to obtain a bag of. bran now just when it was most needed for cattle, owing to the embargo placed on the imports from Australia. Grain was not procurable at any price for the pig industry which, under the circumstances, could not hope to compete against the grain-fed pork raised on the other side of the world. The position was also reacting on the farming industry. To-day in Taranaki farmers were rearing calves instead of pigs. The duty had killed the poultry industry in New Zealand, and if it did not kill the pork industry, it would at least render it useless. The farmers had no quarrel with the

preliminary arrangements for the visit, growers, said Mr, Vickers. It was not they who were putting up their prices and receiving the benefit of the sliding scale. The°class benefiting was the middleman class, the millers. The time was opportune to act, said Mr. Vickers. A commission was at present sitting in Wellington to inquire into the whole of the circumstances. He considered the union should take the advantage of making some representation of its views to the commission. The executive decided to inform the Minister of Agriculture and the Taranaki members of Parliament of their strong opposition io the duties and to appoint Mr. Vickers to appear before the commission stating the executive’s views at the time of his vijsit to the meeting of the Dominion executive in Wellington.