VIEWS OF AN AUCKLAND BUSINESS MAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 8 June 1909, Page 3

VIEWS OF AN AUCKLAND BUSINESS MAN.

AUCKLAND, Monday. Inquiries made to-day elicited information as to the state of the wheat market, and if the position is as bad as represented a flour famine would seem imminent. It waa explained that the reason why flour Is dearer in Auckland than in the South is because practically no wheat is grown in this province, and local millers and bakers have to pay the cost of transport to Auckland, which, with all incidental expenses, means a considerable item. A resident prominently interested in the bakery trade, said that, dear as flour was now £12 10s a ton in Auckland—it ought to be selling at £13 a ton at least in order to allow millers a fair margin of profit. The market quotation for wheat in New Zealand was at present the lowest in the world, but it was very unreliable to take as a guide. Farmers kn-'.v their strength, and would not sell ai thai figure, ihe consequence was that the millers had to pay through the nose. At the present time there was a great shortage of .wheat throughout the njorld, owing principally to previous non-bread-eating countries, such as Japan and China, now using bread as a chief article of diet and drawing upon the wheat-pro-ducing countries of the world. The consequence was that these countries were unable to supply the demand as well as their local markets.. It was costing New Zealand millers too much to manu|fa<ft,ure flour at pre I ent. One Southerner had found that he could make far more money by exporting wheat than by making it into flour. At present New Zealand has a surplus of 2,C00,000 bushels of wheat, which were being held tight. Two ships were now on their way out to New Zealand, it was stated, and two Australians were coming over to buy up every available bushel of wheat in New Zealand. By August next, in all probability there would not be a bushel left Tn the Dominion, and flour would at least jump up to £14 a ton, with, of course, a corresponding increase in the price of bread.