K W. HILGENDORF.]

61

I.—17.

That is a very important statement, and will have a great deal of publicity ?—lt is worked out in the figures given by Mr. West in the table I have supplied to you. How do you account for bread being sold at Melbourne for Bd. to 9d. for a 4 lb. loaf ?—There is very great variation, of course, in the price of Australian wheat. It was exceedingly cheap for the first part of this season. If we were importing Australian wheat now we would be paying more than Is. for a loaf. If it would cost as much as the local wheat, protection is of no value ? —The only thing is the certainty. The sliding scale of duties makes wheat and bread one definite price always, whereas the price on the Australian market varies enormously, and I think it would be very irritating to the public to have cheap bread now and dear bread another time. Have you not taken into account that offal is subject to duty as well ?—I do not know anything about that. Mr. John Brown, Farmer, Lowcliffe, Ashburton, examined. (No. 19.) Mr. Wright.] I think you filled an official position on the Farmers' Union in the Ashburton district ?—Yes. What position did you hold ?—I was president of the Mid-Canterbury Farmers' Union. For how long ? —Two years. And I think you followed very closely the wheat question for a number of years ?—lt was during the two years of my presidency of the Mi i-Canterbury Farmers' Union that the controversy regarding free market and control was discussed. I acted during that time as chairman for the different meetings ; consequently most of the business went through my hands at that time, and I gained a good knowledge of the wheat question from that. I think you desire to make a general statement on the position ?—Yes. I shall deal with the matters referred to this Committee in their order. The first, question is, " (1) What are the advantages from a national point of view of the policy of the Dominion being self-supporting as far as its wheat requirements are concerned ? " (a) War : I think it is essential that New Zealand should grow sufficient wheat to satisfy her own needs. With the exploits of the enemy vessel " Wolf " during the Great War fresh in our minds it must be apparent to all how easily mines could be sown round our coast to block supplies from other countries entering our ports. " This vessel came out of the North Sea, round the Cape of Good Hope, then to Ceylon and India, capturing another vessel and setting her off in turn as a mine-layer, and then passing through Bass Strait, south of Australia, up towards the centre of the Pacific. Finally, she came down towards New Zealand, where she brought two minefields into being. There were about twenty-five mines in the northern field and thirty-five mines in the southern one. In the field off Maria Van Diemen the small coastal vessel ' Kerrima ' was sunk, while the ' Wimmera ' struck two mines and went down with heavy loss of life. The liner ' Port Ivembla ' struck a mine off Cape Farewell, in the southern field, fortunately without loss of life. Some of the mines were washed ashore, and one of these, at Tururangi Point, killed three Maoris." The full story of the war-time activities of the notorious " Wolf " was released for the first time by Mr. Rolleston, then Minister of Defence, and was referred to by Sir James Allen in a speech made in London in 1926. Multiply the efforts of the " Wolf " and you can readily see what might be the result. The late Mr. Corson, miller, of Christchurch, in an address to the Dominion Farmers' Union executive in April, 1925, gave actual experiences that New Zealand had early in the war and later. He says : "In correspondence with the Minister of Customs in September, 1913, I pointed out what eventually would happen—viz., short production in New Zealand, a drought in Australia necessitating imports from the Northern Hemisphere. You will remember the late war commenced the next year, when we met the worst possible combination of circumstances. It will probably be remembered the position in Australia was so critical that the first cargo of wheat purchased by our Government was held up for some weeks, the Commonwealth being afraid of depleting their own supplies. Our Government also made a large purchase of Canadian wheat, and it gives cause for reflection to think what the consequences would have been had hostile action prevented the safe arrival." (b) Strikes : Continuing, Mr. Corson said : " During the period of Government control our wheatshipments were delayed by strikes. Again, at the end of 1924 we were threatened with a very critical position owing to labour troubles in Australia when our Government had still 14,000 to 15,000 tons of wheat to lift in the Commonwealth. So serious, indeed, was the position that our Government cabled to Australia asking that Government to expedite the despatch of our wheat. This fact was not published, as we wished to avoid anything likely to create panic. Unfortunately, the general public are not aware how near they have been to finding their bread-supplies very seriously curtailed—• probably in some districts practically unobtainable. Possibly a little more publicity would have been an education to the public, but it would have created a very serious difficulty at the time." (c) Bran and pollard supply necessary : Besides the question of providing the people's food requirements freed from the possibility of supplies being dislocated by complications in other countries, there is the question of an adequate supply of bran and pollard for the dairy and poultry industries. From what Mr. Corson said in his April speech, there would seem to have been dissatisfaction amongst millers in Great Britain at the large supplies of flour dumped into Great Britain without an equivalent supply of bran and pollard. We know that there has been general dissatisfaction amongst our own wheat-growers and dairy and poultry men over the same thing. Both America and Australia have seemingly a first class market in their own countries for these by-products, consequently a partial cessation of wheat growing and milling in New Zealand would lead to serious hardship amongst the dairy men and poultry men of both the North and the South Islands, but more especially to the NorthIslanders.