EMBARGO ON OATS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1915, Page 4

EMBARGO ON OATS.

TO BJJ MAINTAINKD. By Telegraph.—Press Association Wellington, Last Night. "It is very doubtful if the supplies of oats in New Zealand at the present time are sufficient for our own requirements," said the Prime Minister this evening. ''The Government is in this position—that at one end of the dominion there aro people clamoring to have tiie duly removed, in order that importations may take place, while at the other end of the country people are asking that the embargo should be lifted, so that oats may "jo exported, The information at the disposal of the Government indicates that there is a shortage, and that the embargo on exports should be maintained." "It is not as easy to collect precise information regarding stocks of oats as it is to ascertain ho\v much, wheat; there is in the dominion. Many people put their oaten sheaves into stack, and then decide in the spring either to thrash or make it into chaff. They are guided by' prices, but, as far as we can judge, there is barely sufficient either, of.oaten cjiafl* or of oats to provide for local requirements, even when allowance has been made for the reduced consumption caused by high prices. We shall know the position better a little later in the season, when I intend to ask the RegistrarGeneral to collect information again regarding stocks of both wheat and oats. If we have more oats than we require for local consumption, the embargo on export will be lifted, to a certain extent; if the supplies are still short the embargo will be maintained."