FLOUR AND WHEAT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6313, 13 September 1907, Page 5

FLOUR AND WHEAT

SIR JOSEPH WARD’S PROPOSALS. PRESS ASSOCIATION. CHRISTCHURCH, September 12. The secretary of the New Zealand Flour Millers’ Association, who was seen by a reporter to-day on the subject of the proposals outlined by Sir Joseph Ward relative to the impositiorix of duties on flour and wheat according to a sliding scale, said the proposals were not definite enough to enable him to say whether in his opinion the scheme would be workable. The millers, however, considered that Sir Joseph Ward’s statement on outlining the proposals was one of the most sensible speeches yet made on the flour and wheat duty question. Before any such scheme was adopted, however, it would bo necessary for the Premier to make himself very well acquainted with the details of the milling trade, for the matter would have to be gone into very carefully. It seemed clear that Sir Joseph Ward recognised that to adopt Mr Hogg’s suggestion and remove the duty off flour altogether would be disastrous to the milling trade and to the wheat growers of the colony. “We are also not surprised,” said Mr Hoare, “to see that the Premier as a business man finds that State flour mills axe not desirable.”