WORLD PRICES AND NEW ZEALAND WHEAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1056, 21 August 1930, Page 11

WORLD PRICES AND NEW ZEALAND WHEAT

At the present time the wheat markets of the world have presumably touched bottom. The world has grown ; an over-supply, and prices in many cases have been below the cost of production. This, of course, is a temporary condition that recurs at infrequent intervals. Already there are indications of a recovery, according - to recent cables from America. The July, 1930, Bulletin of the National City Bank of New York states: “Practically all markets have been so permeated with bearishness that it probably would not take much in the way of a crop scare or improvement in the consumption outlook to bring about some rebound from the low prices. It will be recalled that only a little over a year ago in May, wheat was selling below a dollar a bushel, and within two months, due to the growing realisation of the crop shortage in Canada, it had risen to 1.50 dollars.” At times of unusually low prices the voice of the duty free wheat advocate is heard. Whether he advocates that the whole or only a portion of New Zealand’s wheat crop shall be exposed to unfair competition from overseas, does not affect the unsoundness of his argument. He is the rashest of speculators willing to snatch an immediate advantage for certain sections of the community, and to gamble blindly on the future welfare of the whole community. World scarcity, which comes as assuredly as a world surplus, strikes, wars and other possible disruptions of a wheat supply from overseas, are deliberately ignored. No sane New Zealander with a sense of national responsibility will agree that it is worth while to jettison the Dominion's wheat industry for the advantage of a temporary reduction in the price of wheat. A purely temporary condition which might possibly give a temporary reduction of a farthing or two on a loaf of bread and might temporarily negligibly reduce one single item only in the cost of egg production. It is utterly foolish to expect that New Zealand could always, year in and year out, obtain from overseas an adequate supply of wheat at less than present domestic rates. There is also to be considered the large amount of employment provided both directly and indirectly through wheatgrow r ing. Obviously it is to the ultimate advantage of the whole community that the present stabilisation of the ; Dominion's wheat industry b® contin- ! ;