OUR FOOD SUPPLIES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2413, 19 March 1915, Page 7

OUR FOOD SUPPLIES

THE WHEAT PROBLEM HIGH SHIPPING FREIGHTS GOVERNMENT'S DIFFICULTIES ; STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER 'i An interesting statement, of Bome of • the: reasons why ships are scarce .and certain commodities deaf' was . made by the, Prime Minister at the' New Zealand Club ; luncheon i yesterdays He also gave some aocount of the activities of the .Government since, the war began. "I dare say you ill noticed." said ■Mr. Massey, "that Mr., Asquitn made a statement a_ few days -ago that the British authorities had commandeered 10 per cent, of the shipping of' the world:' In addition to tms-'HTger cent.,'about 14 per cent; of the shipping of the.Vorld belongß to Germany and Austria.' Those sups, are how eitherinterned or sunk ; at any rate, are out of : action. ' This means that nearly one-quarter of the shipping of the world has gone, and the /'-other 75 per cent, has to do the whole of the world's business—a. great deal, more business, than 'usual.' I need hardly tell you as business men that here the law. of supply and .demand 'comes, in. Freights have gone up. I will-tall you of one instance in -which I as a? member of the Government was concerned. It became necessary. for 'me to arrange fpr the bringing of a ; iquantity of wheat from' Canada to New 'Zealand,-.and the- freight, which was [arranged in London, was £2 per ton. (Not many weeks ago it became neceßIsary for mo to make another arrange-. Iment for the carriage of more wheat | from Canada. The High' Commissioner made inquiries am6ng the shipping ipeople in London, and the first offer rne. received for the carriage of the jwheat dow»>from Canada to New Zealand was. per ton. VI am a - farmer, myself; and I have grown wheat and.' sold it.for less v than £5 per ton. The High Commissioner got another offer to bring the . wheat at £4 per ton. I hope we, may not . find it necessary to Apay either .'£s or £4 per tori for the fcarriage of the wheat, but T mention fthis to show, you how things are going )at the present time. .The effect, of Ithis; is "that you/can't move, wheat at •a cost of less than 2s. a bushel. Supposing we pay 6s.'a. bushel for wheat on Canada, we have then to .pay 2s. a /bushel for freight and insurance,' and that means that the wheat costs us Bs. a bushel landed here. And,you can't get away from that. We have either got to pay that price or go without, because tho unfortunate fact remains ,jthat, we have not sufficient wheat of jour own to go rouni' 'That is one ieffeot' qf lie war/ I am not whining, or finding fault; but it is just as well to faoa trouble a 6 it is. Insulated Ships. V . "Apoiiher trouble-was to find a snffl.oient number of ships to take our own '-Tefrig6ratediproduce—our meat, our and cbeso—to the . other end of the world. The Governments of .Hhe. Dominions, Australia, and ' New had to commandeer ships to .carry troops to the war. We had to (ao it in A lrurry, and we: had to'take isome insulated snip?. , Canada had to tho : same,,- but of course fthe ■: voyage from Canada is a touch ; shorter one. The effeot of this ■ t was 4hat insnlated ships-became scarce, jand now we nave not .had. i,. sufßciedt .-'number of ships to carry , our produce (to Europe aa fast ae'the freezing comipanies were able to turn .it out. • The (difficulty—-we have had many difficulties |to t contend accentuated - by sthis -unfortunate faot-rthat we have had Sn certain parts of .New Zealand what Owe are in the habit of calling a' very ißerious drought. They would not think bnuch of it in Australia, but it is. true (■that Marlborough, Hawko's Bay, and to art of the Auckland province have suffered from lack of rain. - One Tes'ult ■of this was that there was an unprecedented rush of stock into, the freezing works. As it happened our troops 'fwere landed in Egypt, ; and it became [possible.to bring baok some of our ships aom Egypt in ballast/ by_ making 'arngements with ; the ' shipping -• con> tmes.: I made arrangements with the flmpisrial. authorities to. release some of four ships already commandeered, aad Ijrnade similar arrangements' with the [Canadian, and Australian Governments pot to commandeer any of our ships if [this could, be avoided. I mußt say fthat the Governments of these two Dofminions have met mo in a very satisfactory way. We had enough ships to [carry all our produce up till the end ■ of February, and up till that time we 'jiforwarded a million carcasses of mutton' iinore than was sent from New Zealand fin these months last year. Sinoe tho tend of February, I am bound to admit i';that we have not'been able to keep things, going on as before. We havo |iiot had- the ships to .do it, and there lias, been loss to the exporters and producers in consequence. BAtthat can't avoided; The .Imperial authorities nave promisejd to help us to get our carried Home, :because-they want the meat for the Allied armies.'' It was of the utmost importance, he mtinuod, -that onr export trade should.. •\ 'kept; going, especially at a time of .-sis.; During the-present producing v.r we would send away from New Zear d no fewer than five million pounds' 'i ''h of frozen meat. ' If this export i-.:e stopped we would have depression re such as the country had never norm for many years. The. Wheat Shortage. Mr. Massey referred to the wheat il.ortage, discussing the reasons that .iad- prompted farmers to abandon the growth of cereals for more remunerative •and less risky branches" of farming •"But I believe," he said, "that, the ■farmers of New Zealand are sufficiently (patriotic to grow more wheat now. They isee that it is an Imperial necessity, and P believe this is- the last of the short for many years to come. I jfbelievo, too, that now the worst of the /difficulty is over. Just before the new Hcrop came in about the first T/eek in February, more than half the fiourmills ;jn New Zealand were closed down because they had, . no-, wheat, ■ end there was a. big rush for the ,71 ew crop as 6oon as it was available by Millers who were anxious to procure stooks for the next- twelve months' I Itoow as a. matter of fact that many -,millers have not yet got sufficient to .carry them on until next harvest. But there is not now pie same competition for wheat as there -was, and the consefluence is that wheat ia cheaper than it 'was a month ago. "Wheat to-day . is probably worth 6s. 9d. a bushel in New Zealand. We have all been hearing a great deal about high prices in New Zealand, but I ask you to. think of .these facts: Wheat here is.Bs. 9d. • in •the Australian. States, leaving out of 1 ecoun't New South-Wales, where they i nave a surplus, wheat is dearer. The latest Australian papers shew that" wheat is selling at from Bs. to Bs. 4d. j in Melbourne, and Bs. 6d. in Tasmania, j Compare that with our 6s. 9d., and you i will see that so far as wheat prices are concerned we have not so much to find fault with as they have in other countries. ... , , "When the trouble came along we 3iad to seriously consider the position. , We saw that we were face to face with , a shortage. The first thing we did was

to knock out the duty on wheat and flour, and that duty will not be reimpoßed until we have" a surplus in this country. We prohibited the export of wheat and flour, and, Australia aid the same, but the Australian Government were good enough to allow all wheat purchased by New Zealand' millers in Australia to come to us. Then we placed au order for-wheat iin Canada, The New: South Wales Government let us havo 100,000 bushels of wheat, and that wheat arrived just in the nick of time. We should havo been 'right up against it' if anything had occurred to prevent that'wheat from coming here. Then we arranged for a larger quantity of wheat to come from Canada, and finally we got an option over a million bushels for July: delivery. If we don't want the wheat when the time comes, we shall be able to sell it for what it cost us. Requisitioning of Meat. "The Imperial Government lias lately requisitioned all the meat which is exported from this country. 1 should like to give all credit due to all those connected with the trade for the manner in which they have assisted the Government in this matter. I wish to say that the scheme is running very smoothly. There has not'been the slightest hitch. Many merchants and exporters have suffered loss by the breaking of their trade connections, hut they have not grumbled a bit. When they all met me in conference every one of them appeared to be more antioua to assist the Empire than to make money for himself and his company. (Applause.) I don't.mean to Bay we are not paying a fair priced , but the price is based not on the speculative prices ruling just before the scheme came into operation, but on the current prices for the three months prior to March 1." I think in that we have not gone far wrong, and. no one has any reason to complain'."