DUTIES ON WHEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20903, 19 June 1931, Page 13

DUTIES ON WHEAT.

SLIDING SCALE OPPOSED.

BUSINESS MEN'S PROTEST.

LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER

Dissatisfaction with the reply of the Prime Minister, the lit. Hon. G. W. Forbes, to the effect that the sliding scale of wheat duties must bo continued, though on a lower basis, was expressed at the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce Council yesterday. The president, Mr. A. M. Seaman, presided. Mr. A. G. Lunn said the matter was too serious for the council to allow it to go by, even with the reply of the Prime Minister. "It has been stated that electioneering has sponsored the duties,' Mr. Lunn added. "I do not think Mr. Forbes intends to perpetuate an injustice, but 1 am of the opinion that lie has been wrongly advised." Mr. Lunn moved that, another letter be sent, to the Prime Minister urging him to give the matter farther personal consideration. This letter stated that doubtless the permanent officials favoured the sliding scale as a safe and suro protection for an industry, bub the council submitted that a far wider view was imperative than the full protection of one class of producers. That view could not oinit the urgent needs for cheapening the main foodstuff of 60,000 unemployed, who must have bread, and also the need, acknowledged by the Prime Minister, for a reduction in the cost of living generally. Another point stressed in the letter was that taxation should bo equitably distributed over the whole country, and attention was drawn to the fact that as almost the whole of tho wheat was produced in tho South Island, consumers in other parts of the Dominion had to bear the added burden of coastal freight. The effect of that position was revealed by the current price for fowl wheat, 6s 9d per bushel in Auckland, as compared with 5s 3d per bushel in Christchurch. In seconding the motion, Mr. W. A. Boucher suggested that, in the event of an unsatisfactory reply being received from the Prime Minister, a precis of all the correspondence between the chamber and the Prime Minister should bo given to all the members of Parliament, in order that they should have an opportunity of studying the matter before it was introduced in the House.

The motion was carried and Mr. Boucher's suggestion was adopted.

At its meeting on May 21, the council adopted the following propocals:— That the sliding scale of duties be abolished on the grounds that it entirely frees » small class of primary producers from the normal fluctuations of world prices and places them in an exceptionally favourable position compared with other primary producers and this at the expense of the whole community at a time when it is essential that the cost of living be reduced. That a per cental duty, at no time exceeding the equivalent of 35 1-3 per cent, f.o.b. cost in the case of Empire wheat, be imposed for a limited period until, with the country's natural advantages, wheat can be produced at the average of the cost in the British Dominions. That protection should be afforded only during a portion of the year following each harvest, proportionate to the ratio of the internal supply of wheat to the noimal annual requirement.