WHEAT DUTIES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 220, 4 September 1929, Page 8

WHEAT DUTIES

FURTHER EVIDENCE HEARD SLIDING SCALE SUGGESTED POLICY OF GOVERNMENT DURING WAR [Per Press Association.] Wellington, Sept. 4. Further evidence was heard to-day by the special committee of the House of Representatives considering the wheat duties question. Mr. McDonald, at one time president of the Board of Trade, outlined what had been done by the Government during the war and said that had it declared in favour of a free trade policy the wheat industry in New Zealand would have gone out of existence. If it was desirable that New Zealand should produce sufficient wheat to be independent of importation —and he agreed that it was then he knew of no better method of carrying out that policy than the sliding or fluctuating scale of duties. It affected the object aimed at with a minimum of Government interference. To the Hon. G. W. Forbes witness said he did not think it would be wise to depend on Australian markets. There was the constant danger of labour difficulties and these were likely to lead to panic conditions in New Zealand. In contradistinction the witness pointed out that England could draw ou the whole world for her wheat. To the question did he think the farmer got the benefit of the present protection, witness replied: “Yes, to the full. A wheat grower, Mr. Ruddenldau, of Waimate, gave evidence that under normal conditions the costs of producing wheat in the Dominion were infinitely higher than in Australia. Protection in the form of a bounty or subsidy did not offer stability or continuity to a reasonable remunerative selling price, as it did not keep Australian wheat out and any form of fixed duty lent itself to dumping.