INDIAN WHEAT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1439, 23 December 1886, Page 2

INDIAN WHEAT.

Noting the circumstance of steameH being laid on with freights of from India for Australia, a contem-j porary remarks that the importation ofl wheat from India is one of the necessary consequences of the establishment of steam communication. Two vessels are, it seems, bringing 500 tons each, half for Hobart, and the balance for Adelaide, Sydney, and Brisbane, while freight for 1000 tons each has bees secured in boats to follow. As it is stated that Indian wheat can be put upon the Australian market at 3s per bushel, the result must, it would seem, be to drive home-grown grain to a large extent out of that market, as wheat cannot profitably be grown in Australia for anything like that figure; It is said that to produce a good marketable flour other kinds of wheat must be mixed with the Indian wheat, and to that extent the home-grown article will continue to meet with a demand at, perhaps, a paying price, but if the bulk of the wheat used is to be Indiangrown, then, clearly, instead of wheatgrowing extending in Australia it must be very largely contracted. The journal to which we refer above as having drawn attention to this matter points out that of the Australian colonies} South Australia and Victoria will be principally affected, New South Wales and Queensland being poor wheat producers, and the two colonies firstmentioned being the only ones in which the production of wheat is much larger than the local consumption. It will be a serious thing for those wheat producing districts to be practically shut out of the markets ol the short-pro-ducing sister colonies, and to be drivenenrirely to the Home market for tbe disposal of their surplus producer “ What this competition means to South Australia (says our contemporary) may be indicated to some extent by her statistics. In 1875-6 the area under wheat was 898,830 acres; the return was 10,739,834 bushels; tbe average yield per acre 11 bushels 5 ylhs; average price, 5s per bushel; shipments of breadstuff, 318,932 tons, valued at This is the record of an exceptionally good year, for the yield since then has only once come at all to near that of 1875-6; that was four years later when the crop was 9 bushels 47lbs per acre, hut tbe price was only 4s sd. In spite of every ob* stacle, however, the cultivation of wheat lands continued to increase steadily,and, in 1884-5, 1,942,458 acres produced 14.621,755 bushels, or an average of 7 bushels 32lbs per acre. We have not the price and shipments for that year, but in 1883-4, when with a lower area, the crop was a few thousand bushels greater, the price was 3s 9d, and shipments of breadstuff's were 328,873 tons, valued at 1,896, the value of wool exported in the same year was £2,616,626, and that of copper and copper ore while the total value of exports was It will be seen, therefore, that the export of breadstuff's for the year was only a little less than that of wool, but greater than that of wool and copper combined if tbe wools grown in other colonies, and valued at be deducted. It amounts, however, to considerably more than a third of the total exports. To a colony that is already struggling against such pecuniary difficulties as those in which South Australia is involved, and that has suffered so heavily of laie years from bad seasons and low prices, Indian competition threatens consequences that under tbe most favorable combination of circumstances cannot fail to operate most prejudicially, and situated as she is at present, may prove disastrous in the extreme; for her difficulties are already greater than ■her statesmen are able to cope with, and, in spite of relief works that are being carried on for the purpose of giving employment for those who can find no other work, hundreds of laborers continue to emigrate to other colonies where there is a greater demand for their services. If, then, tbe development of an Indian trade is a good thing for Australia, by one of the colonies at least it can be regarded only with the gravest apprehension.

. . . . To Victoria the result is not so important as to South Australia, for although she is a large wheat-* producer, sue is not so dependent upon that industry as is the sister colony. She has many industries, and she is prosperous, while South Australia has few, and her future seems to depend as largely as her past upon the successful cultivation of her wheat lands. Besides this, her finances are in a lamentable condition, and the business of the colony is in a most depressed state. It will be of interest to inquire how this new development of commerce will affect her, for we I cannot ignore the fact that one colony of the group cannot meet with a series of commercial disasters without more or less serious consequences to thew-iole. The success of the Indian venture seems to mean the destruction of the wheat industry in South Australia j for, although by a repressive tariff Indian grain may be excluded from their own territories, the two will have to meet as competitors in an open market elsewhere.” AH this is of great interest to . New Zealand as well as to South Australian and Victorian grain-growers, as if Indian wheat is to beat Australian wheat out of the markets of New South Wales and Queensland, there will clearly be no room for the competion of New Zealand grown wheat, and our farmers will have to look to the English market almost solely for the disposal of their surplus.