WHEAT PRICES

Hokitika Guardian, 9 November 1920, Page 4

WHEAT PRICES

A PROSECUTION

[PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.—CJPYRIGHT.f

Christchurch, Nov. 8

Regarding the Tiniani demand for a change in the wheat price regulations, the occasion of it was a prosecution here in which the Wheat Controller, in the Supreme 'Court, before His Honour Mr Justice Herdhian, took action against Moody, Annand. and Company, Timaru, grain and produce merchants, and Government brokers under the Wheat Trade Regulations, and Francis Nelligan, farmer, Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, for breaches of the Regulations of Trade and Commerce Act, 1914. For the prosecution, Mr Donnelly said that Nelligan on four different occasions soid wheat, inferior to good milling wheat, at prices considerably in excess of the prices fixed. He sold 100 sacks at Is. 3jd a bushel in excess ; another quantity at the same price; another at lid a hushel in excess, and a fourth at is lj-d in excess. Referring to the company’s position, Mr Donnelly said that it offered good milling wheat to flourmillers at 9d a bushel in excess of the price fixed, and aided and abetted Nelligan by shipping the wheat he, as a grower, sold illegally. His 'Honour said that the offences must be regarded as serious ones, because the success of the Government’s scheme to .control" the wheat business depended on the persons connected with growing and selling complying strictly with the regulations. Both growers and brokers should understand that the regulations must he closely observed. He would differentiate between the two offenders. The company might not have realised that it was committing an offence, but it should he punished. Nelligan had deliberately defined, the regulations'.’ He would be fined £SO for each offence. The brokers were penalised to a lesser extent.