Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1927. THE FLOUR AND WHEAT DUTIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 274, 18 October 1927, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1927. THE FLOUR AND WHEAT DUTIES.

Our North Island population is not so much interested in the wheat-growing industry as that of the South. So little wheat is growm in the North that, for all practicable purposes, the crop may , be regarded as negligible, and so far as the milling industry is concerned, it is dependent almost wholly upon South Island wheat or importations from overseas. That accounts for the attitude of Auckland farmers and North Island members in opposing the new duties on wheat and flour, which were approved of by the House of Representatives on Eriday on division by 44 votes to 24. Of the minority, eighteen were North Island members, the remainder representing South Island constituencies, while twenty South Island members voted with the majority. The Government policy, in proposing these new duties, is designed to encourage our wheat gi’owers to remain in the business by stabilising prices. In future wheat is to be subject to a duty of fifteenpence per 601 b bushel, when the current domestic value at the port of shipment is 5s 6d, the duty to be raised or lowered by a halfpenny for every halfpenny that the current domestic value fluctuates above or below 5s 6d. The duty on wlieaten flour, wheatmeal and similar preparations of wheat will be £3 10s per ton, with increases or decreases of one shilling per ton for every shilling that the current domestic value at the port of shipment exceeds, or is below £l3 10s per ton. In other words if wheat was down to 5s per bushel at the port of shipment, the duty would be automatically raised, under the sliding scale proposed, to Is 9d per bushel, and, similarly, if the rate- was 6s the duty would be reduced to 9d per bushel. In the case of flour, etc., the. duty would fall by 10s per ton if the “current domestic value at the port of shipment” was £l4 per ton and rise by a similar amount if the similar value was £l3 per ton and so on. The sliding scale so adopted is probably the best method that could be devised of maintaining prices on a basis that, while fair to the wheatgrower, will not lead to profiteering at the public expense. It is of the greatest importance to the

people of tliis country that we should not become dependent upon the outer world for our breadstuffs, and have to send large sums out of the country every year, for graih that could well be grown in New Zealand, as a source of profit to our own farmers and a help in keeping our workers employed. The Minister of Customs (the Hon. TV. Downie Stewart) met the objection raised by the member for Taranaki (Mr Bellringer) that the revised scale of duty would have the effect of raising the cost of one of the main necessities of life, by expressing the confident opinion that the stabilisation of prices, which would be brought about by the adoption of the new scale, would not necessitate an increase in the price of wheat in the North Island, and that, if the necessity arises, imported wheat may be landed at a reasonable cost. Only by actual experience can that statement of opinion be tested, but the Minister is said to have carefully considered the position, and it is held that, if the wheatgrowing industry is to be preserved and extended, as it should be, to supply the needs of the nation that, by adopting the sliding scale of duties, he has offered the best possible solution of the difficulty confronting the wheatgrowers, who were finding the further pursuit of their industry unprofitable, except under guaranteed prices which the Government was not able to offer them. It is unfortunate that North Island interests clash with those of the South, and that northern farmers have, in many instances, demanded, or perhaps we should say advocated, the abolition of the duties on wheat and flour, but it would be a serious mistake were the Government to fail in its manifest duty of placing the wheatgrowers of the South Island on a profitable working basis. The industry was getting into a parlous condition. During the years 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920 and 1921, owing to the wheat shortages we had- to import no less than 5,638,161 bushels of wheat. Again in 1924 and 1925, from the same cause, our wheat imports totalled 5,802,080 bushels. Thus, in seven years, 11,440,241 bushels of wheat, every grain of which could have been grown in the country, if labour conditions and the values obtainable for the product were favourable, were imported at an approximate cost (averaging the landed cost at 6s 3d per bushel —a moderate estimate of the actual payments) of not less than £3,575,000. Every penny of that money might have been kept in the country if the wheatgrowers had received sufficient encouragement.