MILLERS SHORT OF GRAIN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2270, 2 October 1914, Page 6

MILLERS SHORT OF GRAIN

THE RECENT PROCLAMATION

From inquiries made yesterday among some of the local merchants it was ascertained that there has been no movement whatever in respsct to.those products since' the'Goyernment proclaimed & Tuesday'last' (<ls.-'9d. per bushel for wheat, and £11 15s. per ton f.o.b. in-the-south for flour).

.* "There is absolutely no movement whatever," said one merchant, "and I very mucli doubt'whether'-there will.be until the wlieat-holders, millers, and the Government come to some arrangement that ivili.be a workable one. Some of tli© local bakers are already in) straits for flour, and are quite willing to pay the price that was. obtaining before the Government declaration, £13 per ton f.0.b., b.ut as matters now stand, iio miller will supply, and' I don't see how the Government, can make him. Is it fair to ask millers to supply flour at £11 15s. per ton-when many of them have paid as high as us. 6d. per bushel for wheat? If they did tliey would be selling at a loss of £2 per ton." But all'the millers liave not paid so much. A proportion of them must have bought wheat when-it was down? "Yes, perhaps a proportion of them 'did, but it is more than likely that they sold the flour from that wheat when flour was done. Since then they have had to buy .more'wheat to keep their mills going,' and have had to pay 55., ss. 3d., and ss. 6d. per bushel-during, the last three weeks or more." c Then it is the holders of wheat who command the situation? "Exactly—and you cannot force a man to sell if he doesn't want to, can you?" But can he afford to hold ? > "I should say he could. If he. could afford to hang on to last January's crop -until now, he can afford to hang for a good deal longer. He has deliberately held stocks for a. rise, and now he is riot to benefit by his having remained out of his money all this time. He knew better than anyone that last year's crop for tho Dominion was short. Before it was harvested it. was computed to be a million bushels short of the quantity needed for home consumption. After the harvest it was found to bo nearer two million bushels than 0110 million short. Knowing that the wheat-grow-ers who could afford to do so have hung on for tho rise." ■ ' .

And how docs tho coming season's crop promise? "Not well at all. Tn common with the rest of tho country there has been a very dry time in the south, and because of that 'ate-sown wheat is hardly through the ground at present. We have the assurance of tlnj the South Canterbury Farmers' Union that Mr. Massey's request to sow extra areas of wheat lias not been taken up very heartily, so that there promises to be a further shortage this coming season. In any case the wheat now growing cannot be milled until March next, so iyo will have to manage somehow or other during the next six months oil our own, as it does not appear likely that we canhope for help from Australia, whero drought conditions aro . being experienced. Tho trouble is that the Government appears to have fixed too low a price, and I think it will have to bo raised before there is any movement."