EXPLOITING THE PUBLIC.?

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 49, 27 February 1908, Page 2

EXPLOITING THE PUBLIC.?

A STATEMENT AND A REPLY. TO THK EDITOB.

Sir, — As a flour merchant I have been awaiting with peculiar interest somesign of action on the part of the Millers' Combino in reforence to a reduction in the price of flour, but probably they consider while the public interest centres on the test cricket matches, champion rowing carnivals, the present drought and such like distractions, •their methods stand a chance of escaping criticism. On the 23rd December (over two months ago) according to published reports the prices for milling wheat ruled at 5s 2d to 5s 4d per bushel, while the latest cables from the south on 24th of this month quoted 4s 3d to 4d 4d, a difference of almost Is per bushel. On 23rd December the f.o.b. quotation for flour stood at £11 per ton ; to-day it remains at exactly the same rato, in spite of a publicly notified reduction in the price of wheat of any 25 per cent. Is it not time that the press of the Colony took this matter up in a vigorous fashion and so strengthened the hands of the Government in effectually dealing with the important subject of a food supply so fraught with importance to the wage-earners of the Colony. The quotations for. flour of a much advertised northern concern stand, as is usual, at exactly the same l a-s Southern rates so that the bonefit derived from the competition from , this quarter is questionable. Yours, etc., WELLINGTON iIEKUHANT. Wellington, 26th February, 1908. I Messrs. D W. Virtu© and Co., representatives of ihe New Zealand Flour Millers' Co-operative Association were interviewed on the subject of the letter by a representative of the Evening Post, and they contended that the letter was misleadig in regard to both figures and fact.. "In the first place," said a member of the firm, "the milllers were working at a dead loss, in December last, and they are making no profit now, on flour "at £11 per ton. Your correspondents statement, that the prices ruling for milling wheat on 23rd December were 5s 2d to 5s 4d per bushel cannot be correct. Wo cannot say for the moment what the price actually was, but our firm paid from 53, 5s 3d to 5s 6d for fowl wheat from early in December, and milling wheat would naturally be dearer. Kow, taking the average* of your correspondent's quotations as 5s 3d, it may interest you to know that milling was carried on at a loss of fil 13s on every ton of flour at. £11 (with wheat at 5s 3d), allowing for 43 bushels of wheat to make- a ton of flour — the actual quantity required — milling, cartage, sacks and other charges. To-day (Wednesday) wheat is down to 4s 6d a bushel, and not 4s 3d to 4s 4d, as your correspondent states it was on 24th February. Whnt is the position? Millers finding wheat at 4s 6d a bushel are making no' profit, for the gross profit on the product of 48 bushels of wheat to make a ton,. of flour to sell at £11 is £1 4s, and these nro all absorbed in cost of manufacture, carting and other f.o.b. charges, Moreover, new wheat required to be mixed with old which millers have had to stock and which they had to buy at 5s 6d and 5s 9d. If the old wheat is not used the flour would bo soft. As a matter of fact some millers at the present time cannot got sufficient old wheat for their requirements where no provision was made for storing it last year. Old wheat is bringing to-day 4s' 9d at the mill, sacks extra, and that in - insufficient quantities, as we have said. Sevoral mills to our knowledge are temporarily closed down because they are unable to work at a profit with wheat at it 3 present market price." Messrs Virtue then exhibted correspondence and tables supporting their statement, and among these documents was a letter, dated 21st February, from the manager of the Millers' Co-opera-tive Association, in which it was stated, "I do not see at present how we can possibly reduce the price of flour as millers arc complaining that wheat is too dear to allow any profit on Hour at £11 per ton." ' Messrs. Virtue expressed themsolvps glad of the opportunity of malnng pubhe the position of the flour milling industry at the present time in view of what they consider 'the laziness of the uopular mind on. tie subject