THE WHEAT DUTIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21253, 5 August 1932, Page 7

THE WHEAT DUTIES

APPEAL FOR REDUCTION PLEA TO PRIME MINISTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE VIEW A further reduction of wheat duties as from next March is desired by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, and the views of the council of the chamber are set forth in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, the lit. Hon. G. W. Forbes, by Mr. A. M. Seaman, president of the chamber. "You are reported to have stated last week that it is not your intention to review the wheat and allied duties this year," writes Mr. Seaman. " My council would respectfully submit that this decision is a wrong one, and that notice should now be given of intention further to reduce tho wheat duties from March 1, 1933. Our view is based on tho following among other considerations: — " (1) The present rate of duty is equivalent to some 70 per cent ad valorem, while the average rate on foodstuffs is less than 5 per cent (1932 Year Book;, page 280). The yield of wheat lands per acre in New Zealand is some four times the Australian figure; and no protection should be necessary in view of this great advantage the New Zealand farmer enjoys. So heavy a rate of duty on raw material for our main foodstuff unduly keeps up the cost of living, makes a revision of wage rates difficult, and so retards that reduction of productive costs which is so necessary to economic recovery. The wheat duties also unduly inflate land values in the grain districts. " (2) Wheat products have fallen in price by only 15 per cent since 1929. while the prices of exportable farm products generally have fallen 45 per cent. The wheat industry has received substantial concessions in rent and interest reductions since April, and substantial reductions in the cost of wheat production have ensued, bat the wheat farmer is still permitted to charge the same price for his product as he charged before he received those concessions. Thus, the pastoral farmers are being ruined one by one while the wheat farmer is being maintained in a privileged position and some of the rank and file of our population are on the starvation line. The present temper of the community is not such as to tolerate the maintenance of privileged classes in our midst. " (3) Wheat duties also prejudice the pork and poultry industries, for which wheat is an important raw material. Under present conditions these industries cannot flourish without a subsidy, yet they are potential export industries of great importance. The wheat duties are in this way militating against the Government's avowed intentions to minimise unemployment by encouraging settlement, on small holdings. "If 'the Government doe 3 not feel strong enough to reduce these duties itself, and to defy the small but noisy minority of by no means disinterested advocates of high wheat and flour duties, we suggest that it set up an entirely independent non-political Royal Commission to report on the subject."