WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 February 1924, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

SUBSIDISING AYHEAT GROWERS* TAXING TIJK CONSUMERS. [Sr ECU). To The GrAitniA v.] AYKLLIXGTON. February I. Slowly hut very surely the public is realising that the Government’s vttii*ois attempts to ensure the production of .sufiii iont wheat within the Dominion *o satisfy its own requirements have proved as futile as they have costly and inequitable, ft is plain now that the set ora] millions the country has spoilt in inducing the Canterbury farmers to grow this ladiedar cereal in sufficient quantities to fill all its needs have been so many rniiiions wasted, so far as the

«*roat Lull; of i}k? cmiummity is cowot 11etl. The growers and Dio millers, of course, have benefited hv the embargo of import ;tions and by high prices, hut t'i.* consumers Jnevituhlv have sufleicd i,i ini inverse ratio. Though England has to go much further afield for its supplies of wheat than New Zealand would have to go if the embargo were removed, the price of bread in the Did Country is from 2l) to HO per ion* lower than if is here. \\ hethei the Government subsidises the grown) s as it did at the initiation of this clumsy mctl'od of protection, or prohibits importations and tlien leaves the millers and farmers to settle the prices, makes little difference. The consumer lnttfd pay in cither ease.

THE GOVERXAIEXT’S AYORD. Three or four months ago, the Hon. AY. Xosworthy stated definitely that ihere would lie no wheat subsidy this -oason. A year before, the I’rime Minister bad taken credit in the list of economies he had elfecteil in public expenditure lor several hundred thousands saved, hv the discontinuance of the subsidy. The Minister of Agiiculture nltd the Prime Minister both are honourable gentlemen whose word requires no bond; but on this occasion they appear to Imre persuaded themselves that there is more than a verbal difference bet won a subsidy and a priecliviug compact between growers and millers enforced by the prohibition of imports. The diifercnce, so far as it affects their obligation to the public, however, is no more than a ditloronco between Tweedledum and Twcedledoc. Whether the growers and the millers obtained their inllaled prices, by way of subsidy, from flu* Consolidated fund, or direct I v Irom the pockets of the consumers hv way oi increased charges, e-

e.f importance only so far as the cluing* made this year places an in* leaded p o portion of the burden upon the should er, cf tin* poorer classes. What tin l.uhour Party will have to say about tin

maiti'i' icmains to be -ecu. hut, as a nil.., Air Holland and Ins colleagues ill',, miali more anxious to unileimine Die popularity of the Government than t ftcy are to redress the grievances of 1 lie workers and on that account they in,:\ elect to remain silent.

THE CASK FOR THE GROWERS. Tin, growers themselves state, with apparent 1 rankness, that they eauuot g:j on raising wheat it they are given no more protection from outsell' competition than is afforded by the still import duty which seemed to .'■one their purpose well enough before the war. But the director of the Lincoln Aeri- , eliiir.-.l College, a gentleman of ripe exj'io [■.'tor. a 11*1 wide ol isei va I ion. addressing the Rakers' Conference held in Christehurrh last month, declared that New Zealand farmers wen* using unsuitable varieties of wheat and employing antiquated methods ol cultivation, lie contended that to restore the indus trv to robust health proper cultivation of LCe soil, intelligent fertilisation o! Die crop.-* and full uudcri-'lniiding; o, the whole buxine.-, were reqnireil. This authority has been experimenting and observing in one of tin* principal wheat growing disl: iet.s ill ( ante*, bury ter many years pa ! ami he evidently thinks it is improved Methods rather than subsidies that are roquuod to rai e 1 1industry to its former status. But whether la* is: lighi or wrong; and on this .•■cor*’ tin* growers have not challenged bis judgment- it is lairlv <>!>- lions, that subsidies, however they may lie administered, are not going to insure the Dominion an adequate supply of wheat. TFT Kill ADVOCATES. This being tbc* ease, it is difficult to justify the perpetuation of the payment; of Hi*' subsidy from either the Consolidated Fund or the pockets ol U'C- consumers. One of the Clin’stchuicn ue'.vsjiapers, hitherto a. tree trade stalwart, but now concerned lor the welfare of the Canterbury wheat growers, attempts the task with a charming n-.sumption of its readers’ simplicity. ‘•The average household,” it says, “uses fifteen or sixteen two-pound loaves per week, and there are few, if any, households in this country, in which an addition of a penny to the price of the two-pound leaf would be tell as a hardship, whatever might be said about it. ’flic fact is that the public can easily afford to pay such a price lor bread nwonkl make wheat-growing something nearer to a. profitable industry than it is at present.” 'I be poor, patient, long suffering public! It is the wheat-grow-ers that arc* being subsidised now, but. with the principle firmly established, what is the Govcnment going to sav t:> the fruit growers, the poultry keepers. the cattle raiseis, anil, indeed, the miners and the wateisiders when the fruits of their labours fall short of what their consider a living wage ?

WADE’S WORM FIGS eradicate worms of nil descriptions. Pleasant, sure and certain.