WHEAT AND FLOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20317, 27 January 1928, Page 8

WHEAT AND FLOUR.

EFFECT OF NEW DUTIES. OPERATION OF SLIDING SCALE. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, January 26. The new duties imposed on wheat and flour and their effect on the price of bread were again discussed by th« council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to-day. In a letter to the chamber, the Minister of Customs (Mr W. Downie Stewart) said the new tariff had been in operation since November 1, and he had not heard of any advance in the price of bread in New Zealand. It seemed to him the settlement of the question could only be finally determined by further experience of the position existing under the new rates. A sliding scale of duties was hitherto an untried way of endeavouring to adjust various conflicting interests, but he thought the council would agree that the methods which had hitherto been adopted had not been satisfactory. The Minister said he did not believe the new tariff would increase the price of bread. He would prefer to postpone a definite opinion, how. ever, until it had been in operation 4 little longer. The council decided to reply to the Minister, pointing ont that at the time of falling prices the imposition of an extra duty on a commodity might not raise ite internal price, but might instead prevent the fall that would otherwise have taken place. That was the point the council wished to stress.

The fact to which the chamber toot ex. ception was that certain special local interests appeared to have been able to secure a protective duty the likely effect of which was to make the price of bread higher to the whole community, apart from the effect of the new duties on the coat of living. The experiment of basing duties on a sliding scale had raised practical difficulties, which at the moment seemed no nearer to solution than they were when the first shipments subject to the new duties_ arrived. Many importers had found business impossible under the existing uncertainty, and the resulting disturbance of trade was considerable.