THE WHEAT DEAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1917, Page 6

THE WHEAT DEAL.

ARE WE PAYING TOO MUCH? (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, May 18. Ecforring. to the purchase of wheat in Australia by the Hon. W. D. S. Macdonald at 5s (id per bushel f.0.b., on behalf of the New Zealand Government, a gentleman interested in the grain market said that it was inadvisable to pass judgment regarding the deal without knowing nil the facts. The Australian Government had fixed the May-June price of wheat for the millers at f>s !)d per bushel on trucks at Sydney, but the home price could exceed the export price. The present value of Australian wheat in store or stack depended upon the shipping prospects, and nobody outside olficial circles could know just what those prospects were at the j resent time. Wheat had changed hands in Chicago at over 13s a bushel, and thtn price must not be regarded as purely r-ueculatiye. There was an actual world shortage : of wheat, and if the Australian authorities had means of getting all their wheat to the markets they could'require a better price than the 5s fid paid by the Hon. W. J). S. Macdonald. The purchase could not bo regarded as an advantageous one, but it might be the best that could have been made at thi present juncture. The Federal authorities would wish to get the highest possible price for the wheat on behalf of the farmers interested in the "pool," and the sellers' knowledge of the fact that New Zealand was faced by a shortage, and could bu,y whoat nowhere but in the Commonwealth would hamper the Minister in trying to make a bargain. The amount of wheat in stack n. Australia at the end of April, according to the olficial figures, was over thirtyeiglit million bushels. This total included 10,18(5.000 bushels of the n;d season's grain, and 28,225,000 bushels of the new season's wheat. During the five mouths pri#r to April 21, 1017, the amount of wheat moved from the connt try districts was under 8,000,000 bushels.