WHEAT AND FLOUR DUTIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20807, 25 February 1931, Page 10

WHEAT AND FLOUR DUTIES.

A promise of "some reductions not only in the price of wheat but in the milling and baking industry as well" was made by the Prime Minister in Christchurch on Saturday. To-day, that undertaking has been modified by an assurance to wheatgrowers that any revision of the tariff would have abaolutely no effect on present crops. This will be interpreted as a guarantee that the existing system of duties will be maintained until the produce of the present harvest has been marketed: in other words, that there will be no relief from the present exorbitant prices for wheat, flour and l>read until next February. That may be entirely satisfactory to the wheatgrowing industry, but the pronosal will certainly not be sanctioned by the vast majority of the population who arc concerned as consumers. Efforts will be made to hold the Government to previous commitments, but circumstances have been radically altered since formal pronouncements on the question were made. For instance., the world's stocks of wheat have increased enormously, prices have fallen further, and in New Zealand the disproportion between the cost of breadstuffs and other commodities has become grotesque. According to the latest quotations, the price, of wheat in Sydney is about 2s 3d a bushel and at South Island ports 5s 3d, while flour is selling in Sydney at £7 10s a ton against £l6 15s f.o.b. in the South Island. Under the existing tariff, the duty on wheat has risen automatically from the basic rate of Is 3d fixed in 1927 to 4s 6d and that on flour from £3 10s to £9 10s. The fantastic sliding-scale of duties is costing the consumers nearly £2,000,000 a year, of which £1,500,000 is paid through the inflation of flour and bread prices. The price of the four-pound loaf to-day includes nearly for subsidy to wheat farmers. There has never been any controversy regarding the claims by the industry for a measure of protection, nor any suggestion that the whole of the present duties should be abolished. But the existing system is utterly indefensible, and drastic revision of it, to be immediately effective, should be recognised as one of the essential tasks for the special session of Parliament.