I have had the position reviewed by the wheat controller, who has made the most careful inquiries, and the reports which I have received show that the position, as I stated it, is the correct one, and that there is sufficient wheat and flour in the dominion to last until the end of next January. A list of stocks of milling wheat held at September 30 last, which the controller has forwarded me, shows that there is available for gristing 1,740,090 bushels — approximately three and a half months’ supply. One the same date the millers had in the mills, manufactured, but not sold, approximately 9750 tons of flour.
‘‘The opinions I have given are shared by the principal millers of the dominion.’’
Logan Park disagreement
At the meeting of the Dunedin City Council yesterday dissatisfaction was expressed at a letter received by the reserves committee from the Otago Harbour Board, offering a piece of land at Lake Logan, comprising about 14 acres on the following terms: that the land be leased to the council for 14 years under the board's regular form of lease, at a rental of £35 per acre per annum, possession to be given on completion of the reclamation scheme in the Lake Logan area. Cr Hancock, in presenting the reserves committee report, said the committee recommended that the offer be declined.
In this particular instance the harbour board had certainly not erred on the side of liberality. The rental which it had proposed, estimated on the basis of five percent, worked out at £700 an acre for an area which was at the present time practically swamp land. Seconding the adoption of the committee’s report Cr Gilkison said the matter had been discussed at a conference he had attended, and it was understood that the area was to be handed over to the corporation without any payment for the land. The whole offer was a very absurd one indeed.
Cr Wilson said he quite agreed with Cr Gilkison the harbour board was not treating the city council at all fairly, because it had always been understood that the council was to be granted 25 acres which it would lay out at its own expense. The matter was referred back to the committee to confer further with the Harbour Board.
Protest by Dunedin RSA
The executive of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association has sent the following telegram to the Prime Minister and local members of Parliament: ‘‘Strong indignation is felt among returned soldiers at the temporary stoppage of loans without due warning. Many have completed negotiations for the purchase of sections
and prepared plans with a view to building.
We urge strongly the continuation of the advances for the erection of new buildings, and also that due notice be given of the cessation. A stoppage will make unemployment more acute.
Please place our views before the Government, with a view to the immediate resumption of the loans.’’
— ODT, 10.11.1921.
