WHEAT PRICES

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 23 July 1923, Page 5

WHEAT PRICES

NOT SATISFACTORY IN U.S.A. I’EH, PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT New York, July 22. The President of the American Farm Bureau Federation has announ ced that it is proposed to withdraw two hundred million bushels of wheat from the market and store it in farm warehouses under Government seal until the prices advance. THE SUBSIDY QUESTION.

MARKET RIGGING. (From Our Dwn Correspondent). Wellington, July 21. Though the Alinister oi Agriculture has not yet made any definite statement in regard to the demand of the Canterbury iarhim, the general opinion in the lobbies is that he will not countenance any advance upon this year’s priee. A year ago Mr Nosworthy expr-s .-.! himselt as delighted that the med lor subsidising products of any kind had eoasvil and though he subsequently participated in a price-fixing arrangement which bore a. certain resemblance to a subsidy , and inqmsid an embargo upon inipor:-, to protect the wheat-gro.veis from outside competition, he has not committed himself to any indefinite eontinuamv of the spoon-feeding policy. The wheat-growers have -lot strengthened their ease with the North Islam, (“oii.siiinerx by iisswiutinjj themselves with the demand of the potato-gre. vers that an embargo shall be placed upon the importation ot potatoes while the local price remains below 2I I pelton. It is felt that this amounts to a eonspiraey between the two sets ol farmers to extract higher prices from tne consumers than would be justiued either by the cost of prod.i'-tion 01 by the scarcity of the commodities. STAND AND DELIVER. Commenting upon the demand ol tho Canterbury farmers tor the a-ssistanew of th? Government in obtaining better prices tor their products, the Post cheerfully ack now ledges the candor of the wheat-growers. “There is nothing umheided about the methods adopted by Canterbury wheat -farmers more for their wheat,” it says. . * i,s open and above board, for they plainly told the Government, by resolution passed at Christchurch yesterday, that they wanted 6s per bushel or they will not'grow wheat.” But the local journal cim find no reason for the farmers d-.iuand. or. indeed for their threat. The priee in London, it points out, is tis to Cs fid a bushel with freight, insurance. commissions, handling and ether charges paid. The latest quotations received from South Australia are 4s 9d per bushel on trucks at Port Adelaide and 5s per bushel f.o.b. for shipment. But the important point made by the Post is that the subsidy, tho duty, and the embargo have not assured the Dominion a regular supply or wheat, year by year, from its- own producers. The two-pound loaf is now as dear in New Zealand and 25 per cent, dearer than it is in Australia. With the demand of the Canterbury farmers' conceded it would soar still higher.