HOLDING WOOL.

Wairarapa Age, 4 February 1930, Page 5

HOLDING WOOL.

ADVANCES SUGGESTED BY MB. POLSON. RURAL CREDITS MACHINERY, NEW PLYMOUTH, February 3. “It is an unfortunate time for the banks to raise the overdraft rate when farmers are requiring all the finance they can get in order to hold their wool,” said Mr. W. Polson, M.P. Curtailment of imports was important, but careful discrimination on the part of the banks might have effected that curtailment without penalising the farming community. Under the circumstances, the Government might assist greatly by supporting the bonds of the Rural Intermediate Credits Board to enable it to lend against wool, as it did against wheat. That Was not a question of wool control, which was highly controversial, but merely a matter of ordinary finance. Any essential commodity which was 50 per cent, below the cost of production must recover in price to some extent. “At all events,” said Mr. Polson, “advances at the present brokers’ values at 6i per cent, up to £2OOO, the Rural Credits Board’s limit, could safely be made against wool in approved stores, in order to give the market a chance to rally and would be of material benefit to the farming community.” The question was of sufficient national importance, Mr. Polson thought, to warrant the Government taking action. The Hon. G. W. Forbes, in reply to a telegram from Mr. Polson, had expressed the opinion that such a proposal should come from farming organisations with some degree of unanimity before the Government considered it. “The proposal is one to which the producers might give consideration,” continued Mr. Polson. “The necessary machinery already exists.”—(P.A.)