WHEAT INDUSTRY

Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1932, Page 2

WHEAT INDUSTRY

INFLATION . OF FIGURES • ALLEGED.

AUCKLAND, September 28

; A circular letter hag been despatched to all members of the House of Representatives by Jim Auckland Chamber of Commerce by way of a categorical reply to a circular issued last week-by the Wheat Marketing Agency Company Limited, Christchurch, in defence of the present wheat duties. , The \‘ letter' attributes the great decrease in pigs sinc e 1927 to the imposition of the sliding scale of wheat duties in that year. In reply. to the statement that, only 150 f° 1 75 professional egg men are in business for ■ a living,, the chamber says that of 154,221 (fowl flocks in New Zealand, 8774 are of fifty birds and over. Against this of 6290. wheat farms only twenty-four •harvested 300 acres or over last year, whereas 320 acres is considered to be the minimum' economic area for a oneman wheat farm in the United States and Canada.

■'TV iis stated that even under the present adverse conditions, the product of the poultry industry in New Zealand exceeds in value that of the wheat industry. Over-production, if it exists, as alleged, is stated to be due to the difficulty of developing the . export trade in the protected markets of Britain, while grain prices are excessive. The Wheat ( Agency Company is charged with • having inflated its figures for a number of farmers and others engaged 1 in the industry. In conclusion, the chamber declares that if the duties wer e nationalised wheat would still be grown in New Zealand under the natural protection of Is 6|d a basdiel against the Australian wheat, represented by freights and landing charges.