EXPLOITATION IN WHEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 April 1932, Page 6

EXPLOITATION IN WHEAT.

The details and figures, published yesterday in connection with the marketing ■of fowl wheat in New Zealand demand careful inquiry by the authorities. From time to time the Government has urged upon settlers the need for adding “side-lines,’’ such as poultry raising, to the activities of their farms. If the proposals for absorbing the unemployed on homestead sections are to have any chance of success it is essential that the utmost be made of the productiveness of the small holdings that are to be offered. The Dominion has been proved suitable in every way but one for the successful development of a large poultry industry. World records in egg production have been achieved by Dominion-bred poultry and, could production costs be materially reduced, there is wide scope for the sale of poultry as an. alternative to the ordinary supplies of meat and for export. But the one direction in which the Dominion poultry raiser fails is in keeping down the costs of production. To bring this about it is essential that he should rely upon a supply of cheap wheat. This is impossible at present, the reason being that Parliament in its wisdom has seen fit to protect the wheat growers with a heavy duty. Last month the duty was reduced, and in introducing the legislation making this possible the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. G. W. Forbes, stated that it would not only reduce the price of flour and bread but would reduce the.price of fowl wheat also. Poultry farmers are only too well aware that so far from fowl wheat being cheapened it is actually dearer than when the higher duties obtained. By the simple process of keeping the price of fowl wheat at the same figure as that for milling wheat those who hold the stocks’available appear to be making an undue profit, and the poultry farmer, who must sell his produce more cheaply to meet the lower spending capacpublic, finds one of his important ite'ffis of expenditure higher than ever. The more the working of the wheat duties is experienced the more unsatisfactory they are shown to be. The case in regard to fowl wheat is, however, particularly glaring. It demands prompt inquiry, and, if exploitation is proved, the removal of the duties that cause the injustice.