HEAVY DEFICIENCY.

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 103, 7 March 1889, Page 3

HEAVY DEFICIENCY.

. By Electric Telegraph*— Copyngb '<■ LP^R UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.] . ' Sydney, March 5. , The Government Statist reports ths f the wheat yield is only 5.1 bushels t ;j the acre. The total for the colony i 1,540,000 bushels, being a deficienc - of 3,750,000 bushels on the averag • of the past 27 years. The drough has also caused an estimated loss ii cereals of 900,000 bushels. The re quirements of the colony are estimate* 3 at 8,100,000 bushels, leaving a de ficiency of 6,560,000. It is estimatei ; that Victoria and South Australia wil only have available for export 4,600,001 • bushels between them. New Soutl Wales aud Queensland, which als< has to import part of its flour, wil therefore have to look to New Zea ' land, and probably America, to sup ( ply their deficiencies. Later. The wheat markets in the Austra lian colonies, particularly at Mel bourne, are in an unsettled an< \ excited state. At Adelaide wheat n quoted at 4/7 to 4/8£ ; at Melbourne, at 5/1, and roller made flour Ll2 10/ The Sydney price is 5/3. The publi cation of the estimate showing a great deficiency in the yield will probablj cause a further rise. Some exception is taken to the official estimate of thc amount required for consumption in New South Wales. The statistician allows 6f bushels per head whereas Victoria only requires s£. The statistician defends his computation on the ground that in New South Wales the adult population is larger than in the sister colony. March 6. The yield of wheat in this colony has increased 168 per cent, during the past ten years. This year's crop is the smallest since 1871. It is calculated that the drought will entail a loss of £900,000. The only wheat in the market at present is from New Zealand, and yesterday's quotations are still mainI tained. _