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Mataura Ensign, Issue 1132, 6 January 1903, Page 2

THE STAFF OF LIFE. With flour at £l3 per ton, a sharp rise in the price of bread is an untoward event that could not easily have been avoided. Although the outlook for the immediate future is a little brighter than the appearance of present eircumstances, it is difficult to base a satisfactory expectation of much lower prices for the stall of life during the next few months upon any more solid fdundation than that of hope. Fairly large shipments of American flour now on the way to New Zealand will no doubt have some slight effect towards reducing prices, but the chief cause of easier values will occur through a satisfactory wheat harvest in North Otago and Canterbury. At present the crops promise exceedingly well, and unless some unusual disturbance of meteorological conditions occurs, the situation will be saved to a great extent. But even then there will be no more wheat available than can be readily disposed of for home consumption, and to meet the urgent demands of the Australian markets (rendered all the more acute ,by the great drought); consequently if bread is even but slightly cheaper during the coming year than it is at present there will bo room for considerable thankfulness. The _ position is almost unparalleled in the history of the colony, and becomes all the more remarkable •when the fact is recited that the by-products such as bran and pollard stand at % higher value to-day than did flour itself two years ago.