The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937 THE MINISTER'S APPEAL TO WHEAT-GROWERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20667, 4 March 1937, Page 6

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937 THE MINISTER'S APPEAL TO WHEAT-GROWERS.

Insisting that bctouse the Government is offering tiot only a “fair and reasonable price” for the 1937 and 1938 wheat crop, but is guaranteeing the wheat-grower a fixed price for two seasons, the Ministei’ of Industries and Commerce has issued an appeal to the agriculturists of New Zealand to grow more wheat. In the course of his message the Minister says: “The Government has done two things of great advantage to the grower. It has placed an embargo on imported wheat and flour, thus conserving the whole of the New Zealand market for our own growers; and it has fixed the price a year in advance, removing all doubt in the mind of the farmer and ensuring a fair price for wheat even if all other prices fall. There is no guarantee tha't wool and lamb will remain at the present high level, but farmers have a definite guarantee for wheat and it is left that the price fixed is sufficient Inducement to grow it.

It may be said by way of rejoinder, that the Government has done something that the Minister has studiously avoided mentioning. It is true that no one can be sure that wool and meat prices will hold. The dairyman, on his part, has a guaranteed price for the present season, but the outlook is uncertain as far as price is concerned for next year; indeed, the dairyman knows that no Government can continue to pay him £2O a ton more for his butter than the selling price at Home without the taxpayers of New Zealand paying the piper. It is true that the Government has fixed the price of wheat for two years. The Minister claims that this action on the part of the Government will give the wheatgrower a price that “Undoubtedly allows the Wheatgrower’s to make wheat growing profitable.” How does he know? It should be said by way of reply to the Minister that he has no foundation in fact for making sucli statements, unless he is prepared to give a guarantee to the wheat-grower, not only that the Government will pay a fixed price for two seasons, but that the costs of production and the costs of the services and supplies needed by the wheat-grower will notyontinue to increase. The Government, in fixing the price of wheat, has not taken the rising costs of production into consideration. The Minister appeals to the wheat-grower to approach the question of producing sufficient wheat for New Zealand's bread needs, froin the 'point of view of national duty, but the agriculturist who has watched with excusably envious eyes the generous provisions the Government has made for all employed in industrial and commercial activities; he has felt the increasing pressure of increased charges due to higher wages and improved conditions guaranteed the rural workers under the Government's yage-raising and hour-reducing policy, and he now expects the Minister of industries and Commerce to treat him as liberally as the Minister of Labour has treated the workers in all classes of employment. Moreover, the wheat-grower insists that the Minister should disclose the facts upon which the guaranteed price for the 1937 and 1938 seasons was determined, and let the country know something of the essential points that were made by the wheat-growers who supplied the Minister's Committee of Inquiry with the conclusions drawn, not from theorising in departmental offices, but from years of experience in the risky business of wheatgrowing.