FARMING AFFAIRS

Lake County Mail, Issue 40, 10 March 1948, Page 6

FARMING AFFAIRS

This column is supplied weekly by Federated Farmers of New Zealand!. The information given is official but any views expressed are those of the federation and are not necessarily those of this newspaper. * ' Handling Grain in Stores While grain merchants have, throughtheir association, agreed with tlie contention of Federated Farmers that the opening of' stores on Saturdays would facilitate the removal of grain and similar produce, - they could not be expected to open stores at a loss' to themselves. That information was given in a reply to Federated Farmers which made representations for the handling of produce on six days a week. The general opinion of merchants was " that they would be prepared to work a six-day week in their grain stores, provided they were able to obtain the additional cost which would be incurred by reason of overtime, etc. The merchants said that they had for a considerable time' found that the charges they were permitted to make were quite inadequate, having regard to increased wages and the general increase in store costs which had taken place since, the original charges were fixed." On that old scale of charges they were at present making a loss on the j handling of grain and other produce. A six-day week, therefore, would result in an additional loss. The merchants disclaimed . any responsibility for the- delay in unloading railway trucks at their stores. One of the biggest delays in the Canterbury district, for instance', Avas in the railway yards at Christchurch and Lyttelton. It was in the interests of the merchants that they discharged and loaded railway trucks as quickly as possible. Trucks ' wore, therefore, not held by merchants for a moment longer than was necessary. Grain store proprietors had to contend with many difficulties, said the Merchants’ Federation, and just recently those difficulties had been accentuated by the arrangement whereby wheat, etc., could be brought from the country by carriers. Merchants were finding that with the new procedure _they were obliged to attend to 'the handling of carriers’ trucks immediately and so had to leave temporarily the discharge or loading of a railway waggon. • The merchants were of the opinion, however, that the delay in - railway trucks was, not of any great importance so far as grain stores , were concerned. Everything possible was being done to handle the harvest as expeditiously as possible.