"OUR INFAMOUS BREAD TAX"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22493, 10 August 1936, Page 12

"OUR INFAMOUS BREAD TAX"

Sir, —In your issue of Thursday I noticed that a correspondent, G. F. B. Weiss, makes some rather unsound remarks on the above subject. Spaco will not allow my discussing the whole of his letter in detail, but I will select one or two of bis salient points. (1/ He states that the wheatgrower in Australia can compete in the world's market "without being spoon-fed.;' J have before me a review of the work of tho Royal Commission on the wheat, flour and bread industries in Australia, tho date, March 12, 1036. in which Sil Herbert Gepp, K. 8., states that daring the years immediately prior to the above commission grants-in-aid froir thf Treasury of £8,000,000 had bete paid to the wheatgrower, and that oe November 27. IP.'U, the commission in its first report made specific recorr.mendations regarding the distribution of s further £-1,000,000 to the Australian wheatgrowers. The Coinnionwealtb Government adopted this recommendation in full in respect of lf3-l-193c wheat harvest. ('2A "The price of fowlwheat is practically prohibitive it this country, and thousands of pcultrj keepers had to give up owing to the wheat prices." This i-s quite wrong, as th.cre are mora poultry-owners in New Zealand to-day than ever before. The prico of wheat in Australia to-day if 4s Pd, f.0.b., and this could nov. he landed in Auckland for under os 9d per bushel. On the other hand, fowl wheat can be bought f.o.b. Lyttelton at 4s 6d, and can be landed in Auckland at .is 2d per bushel Recently the same wheat could be purchased for 5d per bushel lo*s, but owing to a keen demand during the last few davs, the price has risen to that stated above. The abov* remarks refer only to graded lines, but sample lines containing sprouts, hut just as good for poultry feed m G.W.F.W. can be bought f.o.b. Lyttelton for anything from 3s 9d-4s 3d, and landed in Auckland for loss than ss. (3) Your correspondent says that iro* ports of Australian wheat woulc. reduce the price of bread by 40 per cent, but fails to appreciate two points, Australian wheat actually costs mor< than New Zealand to land. (M Th? cosl of the wheat in a loaf of bread i? onl\ lid, in any case. (4) His last point that the importation of wheat cculo increase the value of poultry production to 10 or 20 times that of the value of the whole of our wheat industry is obviously an unconsidered point, fs the wheat industry produces wheat t? tha value of £2,000,000 per annum. further fact—New Zealand is absolutely dependent upon her own wheat industry for the supply of hran and pollard for pig and poultry feeding. We require annually nboir. 50,000 tens of these offals, but cannot procure from Australia more than about 10.000 tons. Surely the poultry keepers realist after their experience of the pollard shortage this year that the poultry industry would be "sunk" without, our own wheat and its by-products, Tiikse Arf. Facts.