FINAL WORD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 14 October 1927, Page 5

FINAL WORD

WHEAT AND FLOUR.

PROTECTION DUTIES. . SLIDING SCALE PROPOSED. BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL TO THE STAR. - WELLINGTON, Oct. 13. The Government’s final word on wheat and flour protection was indicated in a series of Customs resolutions introduced in the House of Representatives this afternoon. It raises from Is Id per bushed to Is 3d the duty on imported wheat when the current domestic value at the port of export is 5s (3d per bushel. This duty is subject to adjustment according to fluctuations in current domestic value at the port of export, being decreased by Id per bushel for every halfpenny or fraction of a halfpenny advance in the current domestic value over 5s Gd, or increased on the same scale for every halfpenny reduction in current domestic value below 5s Gd. The flour duty basis has also been revised. The actual duty remains at £3 10s per ton, to bo increased at the rate of Is for every drop of Is in the current domestice value below £l3 10s, or decreased Is for every shilling rise in the current domestic value above £l3 10s. The basis of the original resolution was a domestic value of £l3 per ton.

Dealing with the proposed wheat and flour duties, Mr G. W. Forbes expressed tlie opinion that the sliding scale method would not well. Wheat growing was an industry which must be protected, but the method he preferred was a guaranteed price. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates: “How would you fix it? By a definite price? Would that give satisfaction?” Mr Forbes replied that this would be satisfactory because the growers had a fear that the system now proposed would be evaded. ' Mr Coates: “How much a bushel should it be?”

Mr Forbes: “That figure may be easily arrived at.” He added that unless the primary industry flourished, the whole basis of the tariff would be destroyed by the first depression in prices of products. A definite policy was wanted, instead of chipping and changing.

The Hon. David Buddo said that so many things were involved in wheat growing that it was difficult to make a satisfactory adjustment which would stop growers from adopting the more profitable industry of raising fat lambs. He would be glad to see a system acceptable to the farmers and consumers. Nobody could object to wheat growers getting a fair return for their labour, said Mr H. E. Holland, leader of the Opposition, but what occurred to him was that wheat growing was without plan. There had been years when there was a substantial carry-over, and other years when only half the Dominion’s requirements had been provided for. Climatic conditions, he admitted, sometimes were adverse. He thought that the Minister of Customs should get the Minister of Agriculture to enter into arrangements with the growers to ensure that a certain area should be cultivated, sufficient for the full requirements. He was confident that the wheat industry could be successfully built up in this way, and that. Canterbury and North Otago could supply all the wheat required. The Hon. TV. Nosworthv: “They have done it for years.” During the subsequent discussion, which ranged over a wide variety of subjects, sonic passing references were made to wheat and flour. Three Government members, Messrs TV. D. Lysnar, C. E. Bellringer and T. Forsyth, expressed disapproval of the latest basis, while Mr Bellringer declared that ho would vote against it