THE PRICE OF WHEAT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1804, 2 April 1888, Page 3

THE PRICE OF WHEAT

("Temnka leader.") It is, we are afraid, hopeless to expect any improvement m the price of wheat. We find that the cost of the carriage of wheat from New Tork to the United Kingdom has fallen m fourteen years from 10j 6d per quarter to 2* 6cl. In 1874 the rate was 10a 6i, m 1879, 6s, m 1885 sj, m 1886 4s 3d, acd now it is juat over 2s 6d. "With the greater firmness m freight it is possible that the rale for wheat may stiffen, but it can never approach the old figures, and hence there is a permanent reason for the lower price of wheat. There is m this fact a lesson for us m this colon yt Instead of the cost of carriage to England getting less m this colony it is increasing, and pressing heavily on the grain industry. It is thia year greater than it has ever been before, and it Is to high freights the low prices are partly due. We have had it constantly dinned Into our ears that if we pat on protective duties <re should have no ships visiting onr shores, and no facilities for exporting wheat to England. The fact that the freight from America to England has fallen from 10s 6d to 2s 6d proves how stupid this argument is. If further proof were neoessary, we have only to refer to Victoria whose imports have risen from over 14 million ponnda' north of goods m 1880 to over 20 million pounds' worth cf goods In 1887. Protection has therefoie increased the import trade to Victoria at the rate of near'y one million pounds per annum. The principal cause of the Increase m the cost of transit from this country to England at present is that our Import trade has fallen off, and the reason why it has fallen off is that we ate poorer and we do not consume so much as we need to do m prosperous times, Our imports have fallen off by two million pounds' worth of goods during the pafst 10 years, and this is another very remarkable fact that completely npaeta the* calculations of Freetrader?, viz , protected Victoria is increasing her imports at the rate of one million a year ; the Imports of freetrade New Zealand are decreasing at the rate of about half a million a year. It is therefore to the advantage of landowners to make the whole country prosperous. Wo have often told them they cannot get cheap labor and cheap goods, and at the same time get high prices for their own products, The thing is an utter impossibility, and the aooner they realise this fact the better for themselves and for everyone else. Their policy should be to use 6 very endeavor to promote local prosperity, and that can only be done by industrial de - ▼elopment. Everything points to one fact, and that is that it is doubtful whether we shall have high prices for grain again. The following is an extract from a paper read before the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture recently by Mr George Barham, managing director of the Dairy Supply Company, Norwich :— "I »m afraid that tho wheat farmers have bnt a poor look out. I happen to be a ehareholder m the Hudson Bay Company, who own a good deal of land m Manitoba, and I see from their report that tho growth of wheat has been so extended there that, while m 1881 the total production was 1,360,000 bushels m all, the crop this year is expected to yield 10,000,000 bushels for export, leaving 2,361,000 for home consumption. This is largely due to the Pacific railway, and -while railways are extending m Manitoba they are at the s^ine time opening up fresh districts m India, Kussia and many other places. Ido not profess to be able to peer further into the future than anybody else, and I am old enough to have learnt that it is aafer to prophesy after an event than before it, but there certainly seems no probability of an abatement m the influx of wheat and grain into this country." It ia evident from this that the supply is getting greater than the demand, and consequently the price must remain low; Our farmers could therefore do worse than turn their attention to something els 9. The evil .is that it would be as easy to drive a camel through the eye of a nesdle aa to get a farmer to try anything outside the beaten track. We had m this district a flax industry ; it was just carried to paying point and it would dou .tlesa have been a success only that farmeis could not be got to grow the flax. They preferred growing grain, and tho result is not at all pleasant to themselves or to anyone els?, The price of lnnd must aleo come down, but that can only come about by the bankruptcy of the financial institutions which are keeping up the price of it, and it is not jmprobable (bat we may Jive to see it.