WHEAT AND FLOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 64, 17 March 1927, Page 8

WHEAT AND FLOUR

. (To tne Wftor.)

»,iL M? ptart I lm' made that the Goveminent pay* too much attention to the demand, of the North J*l*nd, which «' peets Canterbury to grow wheat for it at 8 IF 8' Now> ,the •N°rth Igla°d expect* nothing of the kind. It would advise the Canterbury farmer who can grow wh"t ?SLn af^ S t0 ?hanß« hw occupation, wl,; f p!i. lt-J a Jfi"? '*?■ «""* turnips? What the North Island want* i* cheap bread and cheap wheat, and it fail* to see why ,t has to buy dear bread, an* submit tova duty on flour and wheat—for tne pake of the poor, struggling' Southern "cocky » On the, 17th Tebrtary the Evening Post" contained aom* interesting Chnstchurch news: "Not to put too fine a point on it," said Mr. Machin, general manager of the New Zealand Farmera Co-operative Association, "we don* want Australian flour here. It-is an »«*•- due hurdle for our grower* to face." He also urged that if it was legitimate to put a 40 per cent, duty on boot*, why not put a 30 per cent, duty on flour. Last year we imported flout to the value of £421,326, and wheat to the v«Ju« of £603,195, because the Southern farmers could not supply our want*. Th« government Statistician make* the following statement ("Evening Poet," 7th February):—There are 53 flour mills, and their value v put at £789,184. Employees number 675, of whom 36 are females Now to assist these miller* and their 675 employees, who grind the corn of the strug* gling farmers, probably alio at a low, we pay a tax on imported wheat and flour, and we bear the burden as a circumstance beyond human .control, as an act of God. Mr. Malcolm Fraser tells us that retail prices are still 63.1 per cent, above those of 1914. Everywhere we find unemployment, shortage of houses, high rents, and little hope of a decrease in the coat of living. And now the farmer* and millers ask for a heavy dumping duty on flour! How long shall we go on allowing the poor farmers to grow wheat at a loss, and the benevolent millers w;th their 6/5 employees to carry on their'business thiefly for the good, of mankind? Martyr*, allS. As Boucicault would say:— . ' . AREN'T WE ALL!