THE AUSTRALASIAN WHEAT SUPPLY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4515, 15 January 1898, Page 4

THE AUSTRALASIAN WHEAT SUPPLY.

The " Sydney Morning Herald " has compiled the follo^lttgcstiruate of the Australian production ana requirements of wheat : — Pro- Require- Deflduction. meats. Surplus, cienojr. Bus. Bus. Bus. Bus. N. S. "Wales 9,750,000 9,449,000 801,000 — Victoria ... 7,05»,000 7,873*000 — 520.000 S. Australia 4,675.000 8,380,000 1,296,000 — Queensland... ',000.000 2,948,000 — 1,048.000 W.A.&Tas. 1,400,000 2,278,000 — 878,000 28,878,000 25,628,000 1,596,000 8,846,000 Less surplus 1,566,000 Net deficiency 1,750,000 The New Zealand produotiott m&yiw estimated at not exceeding three-fourths of that of last year, say 4,500,000 bushels, while our requirements for consumption and seed (repeating last year's official estimate) are 5,059,284 bushel*, the production thus being more than 500,000 bnshels short of requirements. In both the Australian and the New Zealand f.gmes a reservation has to be made for poseible old stocks on hand, but these cannot be bo heavy as to materially alter the position. There is also a substantial difference between some of the estimates of the Victorian harvest, some statisticians giving that colony a email surplus. That there is an Australian deficiency, however, is certain, and a moderate computation places it in the neighbourhood of 2,000,000 bushels.