IMPORT DUTIES BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21117, 26 February 1932, Page 9

IMPORT DUTIES BILL.

DEBATE IN COMMONS.

NEWSPRINT ON FREE LIST.

REMOVAL EFFORT FAILS. OTHER ARTICLES ADDED. LABOUR AND HUMAN FOOD. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received February 23. 7.45 p.m) LONDON. Feb. 24. In the committee stage of the Import Duties Bill in the House of Commons today the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, accepted an amendment to remove hemp from the free list in (he interests of sisal production in the East' African colonies. Mr. L. S. Amery, formerly Secretary for the Dominions, said the German Navy in the Great War had used sisal. In the interests of East Africa, Britain ought to be equally prepared to help the group of British colonies and protectorates there, whose position was serious. Mr. I. J. Albery (Conservative —Gravesend) moved an amendment to remove newsprint from the. free list. He said Britain's capacity production in 1931 was 800,000 tons and the imports from the Dominions totalled 200,000 tons which, together exceeded consumption by 100,000 tons. The British Dominions could supply all requirements.

Major H. L. Nathan (Liberal —Betlmal Green North-East) said that though only one-ninth of British newsprint consumption was foreign it was important to retain it as a brake upon the price, seeing that three-quarters of the British production came from the mills controlled by Lord Beaverbrook, Viscount Rothermere and Lord Camrose, whose combines controlled prices.

Major W. E. Elliot, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, in replying, said many newspaper proprietors outside the combines viewed the amendment with apprehension. He hoped the House would not reverse its second reading decision. The amendment was rejected by 317 votes to 69.

Mr. Chamberlain moved an amendment to include in the free lisfc animal hair, esparto grass, metallic ores, pearls and semi-precious stones, platinum, whale products, coal and coke, manufactured fuel, potassium fertiliser salts and maize. This was adopted. Labour members, supported by some Liberals, sought to place on the free list all human foodstuffs. Ministerialists replied that a wide range of foodstuffs comprising all the staple articles of diet was already on the free list. .After a long debate this amendment was defeated bv 308 votes to 71.

The Committee stage was concluded with the aid of the closure.

THE WHEAT QUOTA.

NEW MEASURE EXPLAINED.

SECURE MARKET PROVISION.

(Received February 25. 8.5 p.m.)

British Wireless. RUGBY, Feb. 21. The text of the Government's Wheat Quota Biil was published to-day. It aims at providing a secure market and an enhanced price for home-grown wheat of millable quality, without a subsidy from the Exchequer and without encouraging extension of wheat cultivation to unsuitable land.

I The guaranteed price is to be 45s a I quarter of 5041b. A secure market is | provided by imposing on millers a conj tingent obligation to purchase stocks of ; home-grown millable wheat remaining unsold at the end .of the cereal year. The bill provides for the setting up of a Wheat Commission, for the general administration of the scheme ami particularly to decide the quantity of homegrown wheat the millers will require. The Flour Millers' Corporation is to discharge any obligations Imposed on the millers respecting unsold wheat. The Ministry of Agriculture, in a statement regarding the bill, explains that the area of wheat in the United Kingdom fell to 1,250,000 acres in 1931, this being the lowest since statistics were collected. The bill docs not interfere with lreo importation, so consumers of bread and poultry-keepers will continue to benefit by cheap supplies, but flour-millers and" importers will be required to make quota payments into the wheat fund in respect of every hundredweight of flour delivered in the United Kingdom. Millers will not be required to mill home-grown wheat in every parcel of flour manufactured, but will be left free to buy the wheats they desire. The deficiency in payments will be made from the wheat fund controlled by the Wheat Commission, quota payments by the millers and importers being greatest when the world price of wheat is lowest. The assistance to the wheatgrowers thus will bo reduced as world wheat prices rise. Hie publication of the bill has caused considerable activity in the flour market, especially for future delivery. The Daily Telegraph states that Sir Herbert Samuel, Sir Donald Maclean and Sir Archibald S'nclair are supporting the bill, though some of the back bench followers of Sir Herbert are opposing it. Hie Daily Express says the net result of the complicated bill will be a levy of 3s a sack on flour, whether Dominion or foreign-produced, which roughly is equal to one halfpenny on the 41b. loaf.

The proposed guaranteed price of 45s a quarter of 5041b. (4Jcwt.) is equivalent to 10s per cwt. The highest price of British wheat in 1931 was 6s 10(1 per cwt. and the lowest 4s 6d. At the end of 1930 British wheat was 6s per cwt., the lowest price for that year, the price falling to 5s lid for the first week of 1931. The price continued to fall, with slight variations, until the first week of June, when 6s was again realised From the beginning of June to the end of August the price was never below 6s ' except on one, occasion, but from then until the middle of October prices fell and for the last week of September only 4s 6d .per cwt. was realised, this being the lowest price for the year. Ihe price rose to 6s Id at the end of the third week in October, this also being the price for the last week of the year. During this period the highest price was realised namely, 6s lOd for the second and third weeks in November.

1 lie comparison of wheat prices in 1931 with those in 1930 is rather striking, for in 1930 the price never fell below 8s 3d until the Cud of August, the highest price in 1930 being 9s 7d per cwt., as against 6s 10d in 1931. For a month in 1931, from the second week in September, the price was below 5s per cwt. Prices were above 10s per cwt. from April to August in 1928 and from the middle of July to the beginning of September in .1929, with a maximum of 12s 3d in August.