WHEAT GROWERS ANXIOUS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 657, 8 May 1929, Page 10

WHEAT GROWERS ANXIOUS

DUTIES J)N GRAIN RUMOUR OF REDUCTION Press Association DUNEDIN, Tuesday. At a meeting of the Otago Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union to-day Mr. J. D. Hall, a member of tlie North Canterbury Executive, gave an address on the subject of the wheat duties, the question at issue being the retention of tiie sliding scale. The speaker said wheat-growers were considerably perturbed by the announcement by the Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Abat'd, that the Governinent was considering the position with regard to the duties on wheat and flour. They felt assured, so far as the next crop was concerned, but there was an inference that the question of a change would be considered in regard to the 1929-30 crop. What wheat-growers objected to was the removal of the duty on wheat while it was retained on other commodities’. because the cost of producing wheat was raised by protection on other things. After emphasising the importance of growing wheat in the Dominion, the speaker advocated the setting up of a commission of inquiry, or scientific advice. Regarding the relative importance of Dominion industries, the executive endorsed a resolution passed at Wellington in 1927, recommending a commission of inquiry into the industries of New' Zealand and the order of preference in which they stand, with a view to an equitable revision of the tariff.