THE PRICE OF WHEAT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 175, 13 April 1918, Page 10

THE PRICE OF WHEAT

Sir, —Will you kindly allow me a little spaco to make a few remarks with regard to Mr. W. 1). S. Mac Donald (Minister of Agriculture) ou wheat growing. In the firlit place he says the price,of labour before the war was 255. per week and the price of wheat 35. 1 S)d. per bushel. 11l war-timo the price of labour (I mean skilled ploughmen) is 505., not 60s. as quoted, and the price of wheat Gs/ Now, where is the hardship that the farmer growls about? I myself can speak from facts. I was an expert agricultural worker up till two years ago in Canterbury. In the first 18 months cf the war I was employed by a farmer in the heart of Canterbury where there were 60 bushels of wheat grown per acre, and it took no more to put it in and-take it out, or very little more, than it does at the present time, for that farmer had, and has, all his implements at pre-war rates, and I suppose lie has them yot, as have hundreds of others. Now that farmer at the end of the harvest in 1915 came to me and told me he had made enough that year to do him for a couple of years' out of wheat —about £1000 out "of 80 acres of wheat. Ho paid me off and turned his team out and had a spell for one year. My salary then was only 455. per week and find myself, keep a wife and three of a family, and 1 might tell you that I am a skilled agricultural worker, and if there is any farmer who can show me where the hardship is in wheat growing I .would willingly go back to Canterbury to-morrow. I am quite capable -of managing the biggest agricultural farm in Canterbury if they will give me the increased .wage that they cry out about. Admittedly there is as much, if not more, to be made out of 6toek, and not half the hard toil, but the poor boys at the front have to toil. The farmer does not cry out about the high cost of 'benzine or the upkeep of cars, it is all wheat growing. Everything is dear, I will admit, but 6s. per bushel for wheat is a paying price.—l am, etc., .. . PUZZLED.