NO CHEAPER BREAD

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 6

NO CHEAPER BREAD

Mr. Nosworthy's latest public statement, as Minister of Agriculture, on the extension of total prohibition of imports of wheat and flour has proved more disappoint: ing than any on this matter that have preceded it. He justifies the extension for another year on the grounds that the margin of profit to millers between what they pay for wheat and the prices at which th&y sell their manufactures to the public is too small to be passed on ta the consumer; therefore^ the embargo must remain. He has taken this course in the face of his own statement of 16, th March that he was not quitei satisfied about the prices then being charged for flour, bran, and pollard. It was then thought that he would hold the embargo pver the heads of special interests that he is now obviously so anxious to protect and further as a sort of stick to be used if there was any attempt to profit at public expense. Now, as it appear? to us and to so many people who are by no means hostile to the Government, he seems to have hung up the stick for another year. Mr; Nosworthy was asked by " The Post " early last month'to put all the cards on the table. He has done bo, with the result, on his own admission, that he has sacrificed a remarkably strong hand to his opponents, and has permitted special interests to dominate general interests.

" For the consumer there is the poor- satisfaction that he. will he paying 25 per cent, more for bread in New Zealand than is being paid in hungry Britain, and in Australia, where wheat is supplied to millers at 5s 5d per bushel —practically the same price as is paid to the New Zealand farmer; that he will pay 25 per eeni;. more for another year; that the embargo will make flour-milling still more profitable ; and that there is nothing tp prevent creation of an artificial shortage by exporting wheat and flour and offals. Beside all this there is the precedent established by the embargo, and the future probability that other interests may demand from the. Government the same favoured treatment as was given to the wheat and flour industries. It will be idle then to. point to- high protective Customs duties and anti-dumping duties, or the advantages afforded by proximity to market. The fruit-grower, dairyfarmer, even the shipowner, can now ask the Government for an embargo on competition from outside, " the same as you gave the wheat and flour." Any business enterprise that wishes to keep up prices and make more profits, even though the prices may " to a re^ tively small extent be higher than is warranted " by the prices paid for raw material (as Mr. Nosworfchy .shows), can ask for an embargo. This whole business of imposition of. an- absolute prohibition bn wheat and flour, years after the- war, is regarded in a much more serious light throughout the Dominion than the Government seems to be. aware, unless it is deliberately shutting its eyes and closing its ea-ra to facts.