THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13985, 19 August 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

ALLEGED CORNER. IN WHEAT.

CHRISTCHTJRCH, August 15. A visiting flour miller complained to a Press reporter to-day that with the present high price of wheat it cost the millers £12 per ton for raw material, while thov could only sell the flour at £10 10s per toil. The position of the millers generally was, therefore, a most unenviable one. He attributed the difficulty to a' corner in wheat engineered'by a few merchants and millers. Ho thought that very few farmers were holding any considerable stocks of wheat for speculative purposes. He added that a plan which had found some favour .amongst millers was to substantially raise the price of flour, say, by as much as £2 a tori, which, it was contended, would cause tho local markets to be flooded with Australian flour. The rise would, therefore, lio very short-lived, and when flour came down again wheat would come down with it, the corner would be broken up, tho speculators, the farmers and the talking politicians would come to their senses again, and the markets would return to normal conditions.