The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1917 THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 16 March 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 1917 THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

(With which is incorporated The Taihape Post and Waimarino News).

New Zealand farmers are not growing wheat sufficient for the people of this Dominion to live upon, and, of course, if such conditions continue it will mean the collapse of our milling industry. We shall be compelled to eat wheat that we can import, but w’e shall import it in the form of flour, in all probability, as trusting to millers to import would mean another handling and place price-fixing in the hands of millers. This inadequacy of wheat growing by New Zealand farmers is causing the Government some concern. Boards of one kind and another have the matter under consideration, but so far their efforts have not produced anything to convert our trustees of the soil to wheat-growing. At the entertainment given by the Taihape Agricultural and Pastoral Associaton to judges and visiting exhibitors we were surprised by suggestions coming from an unexpected quarter. Farmers will have to realise that the solution of wheat-growing shortage problem must be solved chiefly by them as trustees of the people’s land, therefore it is as well that, however distasteful the subject may be, there should be no avoidance or side-tracking of it. Being experts in farming they are able to deal with it much more effectively than any other section of The community. It should be realised that a growing population must have food, and, sequentially, that farmers will have to grow it. We were almost startled by Mr. Arrowsmith, a lawyer, having the courage to introluce the subject of wheat shortage at ihe meeting of leading producers above referred to, but, however much his suggestions seemed to be beside t-he mark at that moment, we find the Government and its created Boards going on very much the lines followed by Mr. Arrowsmith. The position is, the country wants food; there is ample land of an ideal quality on which to grow it, but farmers say they cannot get labour, moreover, if they could, they cannot produce wheat at such a profit as they can produce something else. That is quite a reasonable p.tt : tude to take up. If a. car-

penter can make more money ' with less labour in making boxes than he can in making doors, then he will stick at boxes till box prices go down, or door prices go up, that is quite natural. The farmer Is only human, but it is said that many farmers have become so wealthy that they insist upon keeping huge estates in the form of parks, where they can follow their pet hobbies, and will not have their thousands of acres of grassland disfigured by the plough, besides, they will not have the worry of keeping and working all the various teams of horses, wagons and farm implements involved in wheat-growing. Of course, , the time is certain to arriv e when compulsion will be brought to bear on such embodiments of selfishness. Mr. Arrowsmith remarked that it was selfabnegation that was going to carry th e British through at the last. Farmers contended that it was impossible to get men. Why should they not use motor machinery instead of horse teams? He thought it preposterous that farmers should fully grasp th« value of motor cars and not realise the value that motor machinery would be in overcoming labour difficulties. H e advocated an organisation of larmiers for the purpose of acquiring the machinery to grow wheat profitably. In other places this was being done. Men in the trenches, fighting for our land, had to be fed, and it was up to us as a nation of producers to supply as far as possible their wants and the wants of those at Home. With organisation he was sure the wheat-growing difficulty could be overcome. He was satisfied that there was as much brains in the farming community as there was in any other, and he was satisfied that farmers by organisation could devise means for doing much more than was being done. What Mr. ArroAvsmith sai3 then, is being said by the Government and its Boards now. The question is a vital one, and both growers and consumers may rest assured that there will be a national persistence in having national needs attended to. The main question rests upon whether farmers should be compelled *o purchase the machinery outlined by the Government, wherewith to experiment, or whether the. State should introduce it and demonstrate its usefulness, its value, and its ability to make wheatgrowing as profitable as any other branch of primary production. Land cannot be kept for purposes of luxury and idleness while the nation and our men at the front want bread, and as it appears unreasonable to ask farmers to provide the machinery for initiating 1 the proposed new methods, the Government should lose no time in having motor tractors placed in every district where wheat-growing is practicable on a large soale, at the expense of the State. There is no shad ow of doubt but that in time the Jaws of supply and demand will regulate prices so that most farmers will msh to grain-growing, but we cannot wait for the operations of such laws. The land of the world is being given to meat and wool-growing because prices are high. This will cause overproduction, 'at least to a price-reduc-ing stage, so that the opposite tendency with respect to wheat will make the growth of the latter as profitable, or more so. We want wheat now, and until natural laws assert themselves, th e State should come to the aid of the trustees of the land by providing the machinery that wilf render wheat growing as profitable as any other branch of farming.