HIGHER DUTY ON FLOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 12

HIGHER DUTY ON FLOUR

COST TO NEW ZEALAND,

PROTEST FROM TARANAKI.

effect on price of bread

[:by telegraph. OWN correspondent. 1 NEW PLYMOUTH. Friday.

"That this chamber enters an emphatic protest against any further increase in the duty on flour or wheaten products." Thei foregoing resolution was unanimously adopted by the council of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last evening. In introducing the subject Mr. Gordon Fraser said the Prime Minister had gone over the heads of the Hon. O. Hawken and the Hon. W. Downie Stewart and had promised an extra duty of £1 on imported wheat and had given the Commonwealth six months' notice of the intention to increase the tariff. This would mean about £170,000, calculated on 8,000,000 bushels of wheat, and with bakers' profits, etc. added, would impose an extra tax of about £250,000 above what was already being taken out of the people's pockets. The Prime Minister's notice to the Commonwealth did not look as if he was going to leave Parliament free to vote on the matter irrespective of party claims. Thero was a strong feeling against the duty in Taranaki, where dairy farmers were unprotected and had to sell their products in the markets of the world. He emphasised the effect on the price of bread which the increased duty on wheat would probably mean. Mr. List: Wo pay 50 per cent, more for bread here than the people of London do.

Mr. Fraser: Yes, and more than thev do in Sydney. Thero the cost of the loaf was while in New Zealand it was Is Id, which meant a difference of about £2.C00,000 a year. Mr. Fraser said tho public did not realise what was happening. The only people who took any interest in the matter were those financially interested at the other end. The extra tax would be paid, but it would not be for the benefit of the industry concerned. The best wav would be for the Government to drop the whole thing and let the matter find its own level.