THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1909. EMPIRE'S WHEAT PRODUCTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3147, 26 March 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1909. EMPIRE'S WHEAT PRODUCTION.

A few weeks ago the president of the British Board of Agriculture presided at the Society of Arta at a meeting held to listen tu a lecture on "The Production of Wheat in the British Empire." It was delivered by Mr A. E. Humphries, a prominent authority on all subjects connected with wheat, a practical miller, and a successful farmer, as well as an enthusiastic investigator of the causes producing quality in wheat. In the course of his paper, Mr Humphries said that the worl 1 coul.l be assured of a sufficiency of wheat at moderate prices. It might even get a sufficiency at low prices wiih th; help of the botanist, the chemist and ihe eng.nser. In the last thirty years the population of the United Kingdom had grown by ten millions, but thfe acreage under wheat had decreased by over 1;330,000 acres, or, roughly, 45 per cent. Iri Canada every province grew] some wheat, and the a wage annual total yield for the last fire crops had been 12 1-5 millions, or 3£ per cent, of the average world's wheat crou. Canada was not, however, an ideal wheatgrowing country, but it had tackled difficulties in admirable fashion. It WciS impossible to fc,; tell what India could do in the way of exporting wheat, for the growers in large districts had many strings to his bow. In 1904 India headed our list of wheat imports, the quantity being substantially more than those from Australia, New Zealand and Canada combined; but that position had not been maintained, and drought had brought the surplus for export very low in the current Indian fiscal year. New Zealand had a decreasing area under wheat, while the South African colonies could not supply their own requirements, and "rust" was a great scourge there. The problem was to find a "rust-resisting" wheat. Passing to the effect of price on production, Mr Humphries said that, having regard to the unexhausted acreage suitable for wheatgrowing, he did not anticipate in normal circumstances any rise in the price of wheat above 3fis. Three halfpence per quarter was sufficient to decide the destination of any wheat, and if any country or port imposed any tax or,due on wheat it was ihe buyer who paid it, apart from and beyond the price paid for the wheat in the international pool, if a country could avoid dealing in the international market and maintained a duty on wheat its wheat markets followed an independent course, at a higher -perhaps only a slightly higner—level of prices than that of the international pool, but so lone as it depended for the sale or purchase of a substantial part of its wheat on international trading, the effects he had bad indicated followed. At present each country of the British Empire which has surplus to get rid of, or needed to supply by oversea imports, went as a 1 separate unit to the international grain market. If an Imperial system of preferential treatment in , fiscal matters was set up the Empire would be one unit in the international market until it was selfsupporting the exporting parts of it, would realise an advantage in price at the expense of the importing parte of. If in course of time the Empire, as France had now done for some years, should rather more than balance its production and requirements, growers would lose some of the advantages and consumers 0e saved some of the cost of the pi-eference set up by law. If, taking a very long view, the Empire produced more than it wanted, and

had to sell a surplus, either the whole advantage of the preference would be lost to the grower in the British Empire, or foreigners would buy the surplus at a lower cost than our own consumers paid for their actual requirements. Even if all the wheat shipped from Australia, Canada and India were taken by the British Empire it would still be a very long way from being self-sustaining so far as wheat was concerned. For many years to come, therefore, the colonial or Indian seller could, in hit, view, if an Imperial preference were given, rely on getting an extra price over and above the value of wheat in the international pool, equal to the amount of the Imperial preference, but equally certain was he that the consumer of bread (at any rate in the United Kingdom) would have to pay. As a means of increasing the acreage under wheat in the British Empire, Mr Humphries suggested a duty of 2s per quarter, which "would give the British Empire producer a pull over the foreigner." But it did not follow that the British Empire producer would be better off.