THE WHEAT-GROWING INDUSTRY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 6

THE WHEAT-GROWING INDUSTRY.

The most ardent supporter of the policy of self-dependence for wheat supplies will find cold comfort in the latest statistics of the wheatgrowing industry. Despite the protection afforded by means of a heavy tariff, the area sown and the yield last year show a marked reduction on the figures of the previous year. In the 1927-28 season, when the full benefit of ftie tariff was apparent, the heaviest harvest since the year 1905 was reaped. In that year 260,987 acres was sown in wheat and 9,541,444 bushels of grain obtained. Last season 25,000 acres less was sown, with a harvest two and a quarter million bushels smaller than that of two'years ago. Even in Canterbury, the home of the Dominion s wheat growing industry, the figures are by no means cheering. In 1928 there was an area sown of 212,098 acres, yielding 7,467,943 bushels. Last year the area dropped to 199,424 acres and the yield to 6,004,975 bushels. Those who claimed that the protection of the local growers by means of a tariff would bring about a large increase in production°have not seen their hopes fulfilled, and the question whether a tax on the people’s bread, which the duties on imported wheat entail, is justified has still to be answered. The reduction in output applies to all the wheatgrowing areas-; even the few small districts devqted to the industry in the North Island grew less wheat than in the previous. season, and the reduction in area and yield in other parts of the South Island than Canterbury was as marked as in that province. The theory that New Zealand should be self-contained so far as wheat supply is concerned has much to commend it, but the question of how best to stimulate the industry still calls for a reply. With an’ested production of wheat on the one hand and the .consumer feeling the pinch of highpriced bread on the other, it is evident that the present system of protection is not a success. It is for those who seek to develop the industry to show how it can ‘be preserved and assisted without the continuance of a tax on the community that is not being justified by results.