WHEAT COMMISSION.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 July 1919, Page 3

WHEAT COMMISSION.

I EVIDENCE OF JOBBERY. | 1 AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ABSOLUTION] SYDNEY, July 26. At the Wheat Commisison to-day another wheat expert and a member of the Advisory Council of the Australian Wheat Board gave evidence. He stated that previous to the Georgeson contract of the N.S.W. Ministry, all saleS of Australian wheat for the East were confirmed by the Federal Advisory Board, but the Board had not been officially advised even of the Georgeson contract.

1 The witness stated that he considered that the Minister of Agriculture had no power to make contracts ror selling wheat overseas, as under the constitution of the Wheat Board. The witness thought it was most incomprehensible how any person with any knowledge of the wheat trade at all' could draw up such a loose document. The price of the wheat sold, ought to have averaged 5/3 per bushel, instead of 4/41. The Now Zealand and Swedish Governments, he said, did not refuse to take the 1916-17 wheat but those Governments bought certain States. In Now Zealand’s case, the wheat was' bought from Victoria. The transactions of the New South Wales Wheat Board in connection with sales of wheat to Japan, were the subject of a series of cpiestions by Mr Blakeley (N.S.W.) in the House of Representatives on July 11. The Acting--I’rime Minister admitted that, the New South Wales Board had sold inferior wheat for export to Japan at an average price of 4/41 per bushel, while the Victorian Wheat Board had oTStained 5/71 per bushel for similar wheat sold to the same country. The New South Wales sale was not made by the Australian Wheat Board, or with its knowledge, as was the Victorian sale

To facilitate business and avoid loss of time, latitude was given to the States to make sales of inferior wheat without reference to the Australian Wheat Board the basic f.a.q. price being fixed by the Board. As the

States were debited by the Board with the f.a.q. rate, eyen though a considerably lower price might be realised it was to the advantage of the States to obtain as high a price as possible. The practice was to report such sales immediately to the Australian Wheat Board, who thereupon issued a contract note. Tho New South Wales sale was not sq reported. The Minister of Agriculture in New South Wales in April last sold 72,000 tons of inferior wheat to G. Georgeson of Sydney, for the Eastern trade, at an average price of 4/4J per bushel. M Watt was unable to say whether tho loss to the farmers on that sale would amount to £IOO,OOO as no sample of the-wheat sold had been supplied to the Australian Wheat Board. In reply to a request for a Royal Commission to inquire into tlie transactions of the New South Wales Wheat Pool, lie said that was a. matter for tile State Government of New South Wales.