THE WHEAT FAMINE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 127, 29 May 1907, Page 9

THE WHEAT FAMINE.

FURTHER ADVANCE IN PRICES.

<By Telegraph.-rress Association.)

DUNEDIN, Tuesday. The local wheat market continues in an excited condition, and sabs have taken place yesterday and to-day at prices showing an advance of 3d and id 4er bushel on previous transactions. -'Yesterday a line of 700 sacks was sold "at 4s Sd'l'.o.b. (sacks in) at Timaru. and to-day a line of 100" sacks (equal qualifies of Hunter's pearl Tuscan) found a purchaser at 4s 4d f.o.b (sacks ,n). An Extraordinary feature of the market lies, in the fact that although millers s*re eager buyers, even at an advance, there are practically no sellers. "' There are on. or two Hems in t lie cable news (say, the "Otago Daily Times"") which have a direct bearing noon the wheat position, especially at a, time when the fend of prices is sensitive to every influence. First i* <h> .c port of the record shipment ot 22,.000 , bushels of wheat from Adclame per s.s. '.Vermont for Yokohama and Hongkong, this shipment furnishing a first-hand proof of our roe.mt statement that one i Lost potent factor in the wheat aitua- I L is the growing demand for wheat , acd flour from Ihe Far East, and thai the improved dietary scale adopted >v the millions of China and Japan promises to introduce an altogether new feature 'in calculating the world's consumption. A second item is the intelligence that the Russian Douma has voted li*. mil- | lion roubles for famine relief purposes, j -This goes to show that the famine which ■L-devastated so large a tract of European Russia is still raging, a fact which "must intensify the wheat position by transforming Russia from one of M West wheat-exporting countries into a -possible importer. A third item is from Sydney to the effect that owing to -drought in the Wagga district some of the flocks have been reduced by 50 pel cent This signifies that the drought m New South Wales has not yet broken up, which, addvd to a reduction by two and '■ k-half' million bushels in the estimated Wheat yield, is bound to make the t>ydnev market firmer than ever; and this in'turn will strengthen the wheat markets in other parte of the Commonwealth. It is seldom in the history ot "the wheat markets that so many circumstances in various parts of the word should have, combined to make possible »'period of extremely high prices. Ihe course of events for the next few weeks will require close watching. \ private cablegram from Melbourne, received this evening, reports that the wheat market is greatly excited. \V heat ■is quoted at 4s. a rise of 4id per bushel since last Thursday, and flour at to 15a, a rise of 15s per ton.