WHEAT-POOL DETAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 765, 11 September 1929, Page 11

WHEAT-POOL DETAILS

MANAGER FAVOURS DUTIES INQUIRY commission sits Press Association, KLLINGTON*, Today, I Giving evidence before the Wheat ! commission which continued its inj qu iry this morning, Mr. W. W. MulI holland. a farmer, of Darfield, outlined the operations of the Wheat | Growers’ Association, commonly I called the Wheat Pool, of which he vas the managing director. He said the association had been established on the lines of the big wheat organisations in Canada. The difficulty which New Zealand crotvers experienced was to sell their wheat under favourable conditions. Under modern conditions all wheat was ready for market at practically the same time and as the market could not absorb all that was available growers were forced to sell at lower prices. This embarrassed those growers who found it necessary to secure immediate payment for their output or a good proportion of it. The consumer did not benefit from the temporary reductions in price. The Wheat Association made contracts with the growers permitting it to take control of the whole wheat output and sell it on favourable terms. That enabled the association to make advances to growers. This year the association had been able to prevent a slump in prices and to a great extent to eliminate the speculator. Mr. Mulholland said it was not policy to inflate the price of wheat as it was likely to prove fatal to their organisation. The association had a membership of between 2,500 and 3,000 growers. He said he would not object to a bonus or a subsidy, but he foresaw difficulties ahead." Money wo aid have to be appropriated every rear and the growers would be in politic* every year.