THE PRICE 0F WHEAT.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2093, 30 May 1907, Page 2

THE PRICE 0F WHEAT.

HIGH PRICES ANTICIPATED

Press Association DUNEDIN*** last night The local wheat market continues in an excited condition and sales have taken place yesterday and to-day a prices showing an advance o£ 3d and 4d per bushel on previous transactions. Yesterday a lino of 700 sacks was sold at 4s 3d f.o.b.s.i. Tnnaru and to-day a line of 1000 sacks (ecjua quantities of Hunter’s Pearl and Tuscan) found a purchaser at 4s ou f.o.lrs.i. All extraordinary feature of the market lies in the fact.that although millers are eager buyers even at the advance there are practically no sellers. There are one or two items in - cable news (says the Otago ai Times) which have direct bearing upon the wheat position, especially at a time when the trend of P«ces m sensitive to every influence. The hrs is the report of a record shipment of 224,000 bushels of wheat from Adelaide per s.s. Vermont for Yokohama and Hongkong, this shipment furnishing first hand proof of our recent statement that one of the most potent factors in the wheat situation is the growing demand for wheat and flour from the Far East, and that the. improved dietary scale adopted jy the millions of China and Japan promises to introduce an altogether new feature in calculating the world s consumption. The second item is tie intelligence that the Russian Duma has voted 17J million roubles lor famine relief purposes. This goes to show that the famine which has 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 the largest wheat exporting countries into a. possible importer. The third item is from Sydney, to the effect that owing to the drought in the Waggu district some of the flocks have been reduced by 50 per cent-. This signifies that the drought in Now South Wales has not yet broken up, which, added to the reduction by 2J million bushels in the estimated wheat'yield, is bound to make the Sydney market firmer than ever; and this in turn will strengthen the wheat markets in other parts of-the Commonwealth... It is seldom in the history of the wheat market that so many circumstances in various’parts of the world should have combined to make possible a period of extremely high prices. The course of events for the next few weeks null require close watching. A private cablegram from Melbourne received this evening reports that the wheat market is greatly excited. Wheat is quoted at 4s—a rise of 4-)d per bushel since last Thursday and flour is at £8 15s—a rise of los por ton. The. wheat market lias been in a high state of excitement to-day, and millers are eager buyers at the present high rates. . 1 Says the Otago Daily Times:—The sale of a large line of milling wheat (mixed sorts) is reported at 4s (id f.o.b. Lyttelton, this_ representing the top price paid up to the present. Other sales include lines of wheat at 4s 3d, Rakaia 4s 6d, Mosgiel 4s'7d, ex store, Dunedin. Tlie sale of a. line of COO sacks of fowl seed is also reported at 4s, ex store Lyttelton. All this affords an indication of - the strength of tlie market, and shows that still higher prices are anticipated. Already tlie prospect of a os wheat market is being actively candoubt is expressed as to whether even then tlie Vop will have been reached. ~ The New Zealand Flour. .Millers’ Association* to-dav decided up off a further advance of 10s per ton in the price of flour. Tlie revised tariff accordingly stands : —Sacks £lO ss, 100’s £iolos, 50’s £lO 15s, and 25’s CTI.

The shipping price is now £lO f.0.b., and the' Invercargill price is £lO I.os. The "price of bran has also been advanced 5s per ton, and quotations now stand £4 10s per ton for local orders, and £4 4s f.o.b. for shipment. The rapid advance in the price of wheat has caught many of the millers napping. They aver that with wheat costing them 3s 6d at the mill door (which represents to-day’s quotation), they cannot afford to grist with even the rapid advance in flour, tho margin to cover the cost of manufacture being only something like 0s per ton. Consequently already one mill has closed down, and it is quite on-the cards that three or four others may shortly follow, leaving the trade ill the hands of those fortunate millers who hold stocks of , wheat, and consequently are able to execute orders.