AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1917, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN WHEAT.

[>' -CREAT BRITAIN'S /PURCHASE. j Ideal of '«as,coo,ooc: j , An iinnonncrment was recently made l>y the Prime Minister Of Australia, Mr. W. M. Hughes, that the British Government had bought the balance of the old crop and the whole of itllt new crop of Australian wheat, excluding that necessity for local requirements, at 4s 9d per bushel, f.o.b. The British GovernIfiiitit was finding the shipping to remove the wheat, which was estimated not to exceed three million tons—a million for the-.first si.v months of 1917.. Arrangements had, also been made with the British Government by which .farmers ;could be advanced 2s Gd net per bushel immediately. Arrangements were being made to safeguard the.Australian milling industry so as to get as much flour exported as possible and the offal saved for Australia. He hoped to bo able to make arrangements later with regard to the 1018-19 crops BALANCE OF OLD CROP. Commenting on the statement, A Sydney newspaper stated that (he transaction represents approximately .£26,000,000. Of the last wheat crop a little les; than 1,500,000 tons remains to he disposed of to the Imperial Government under terms of this deal. The rest of the crop has been disposed of at prices which in some cases have been considerably over 5s a bushel f.o.b. It is estimated that the net- return foi the past season's wheat will be 4s 7d a bushel, which exceeds the previous record price by 5d a bushel. In the previous record year of 191314 the value of the whole of the crop for Australia was £10,042,000. Already the Wheat Board has advanced nearly £25,000,000 on the eroj) reaped last season in four States, and the deal just made will enable a further advance of over £7,000,000 to be made! The value of the last crop is thus more than double any previous crop reaped in Australia, and .Vicarlv three times the average net value of- crops reaped during the ten years from 1904-05 to 191314. EXPORTABLE SURPLUS. The exportable surplus of the new crop which is available for sale to Great Britain is arrived" at on the following estimate of what the crop is likely to he: —New South Wales, .33,000.000 bushels; Victoria, 30,000,000 bushels; South Australia, 29,000,000 bushels; and West Australia, 11.000,000, or a total oi 112,000,000 bushels. From this has to be deducted 30,000,000 bushels for local consumption up till the pnd of March, 1918, and 10,000,001 bushels to maintain : the trade. Which has been built up with Africa, the East, and South America. This leaves a little over 71,000,000 bushels available for sale to.Great Britain, which is equivalent to about 1,900,000 tons. Adding this to the amount of last season's crop, which is available for inclusion in this deal, the total which can be exported to Great Britain is over 3.300,000 tons. The Prime Minister announced, however, that Great Britain was purchasing 3,000,000 tons. Th'.s leaves over 300,000 tons on th. hands of the Australian Wheat Board. It is hoped to dispose of fhis without difficulty. A trade may' be built up with America in view of the reported short-, age there. TRANSPORT PROBLEM. An important aspect of the deal is that represented by the problem of transporting the wheat overseas. Great Britain has intimated that she intends to provide sufficient ships to lift the whole of the 3,000,000 tons in addition to the unshipped portion of her last purchase of 500,000 tons by the end of next Jrne. To do this it would be necessary to provide a fleet, of more than 500 vessels of an average capacity of 6000 tons. This diversion of shipping would inevitably have a very serious effect on the world's freight market. It is considered that in order to shift the Wheat Great Britain would have to assume complete control of all shipping, and in that event first consideration would probably be given to such products as she has bought f.o.b. In addition to wheat these include wool, leather, skins, and some metals, while it is probable that jams «jnd meat will shortly come within the same category