MR NORDMEYER'S TEA PARTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26918, 2 November 1948, Page 4

MR NORDMEYER'S TEA PARTY

When Alice left the Mad Hatter’s tea party the Hatter and the March Hare were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot. It would, perhaps, be unkind to seek too far for modern counterparts for the characters at this singular assembly, but among all the persons who have been involved in the recent adjustments of tea rationing and tea prices the consumer has obviously been cast in the ignominious role of the Dormouse. It is a part which the consumer plays by default. The statement by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, which appeared in our columns on Saturday, expressed “ the Government’s desire that the benefits of the exchange adjustment should be passed on to consumers as soon’ as possible,” and proclaimed an immediate and arbitrary reduction in the price of tea of sixpence a pound. Any temporary elation the public might have felt at this small reduc-. tion in living costs has been quickly dispelled.. The prospect of a loss of sixpence a pound on their existing stocks of tea elicited a heated and understandable protest from retailers, and the reply by Mr Nordmeyer—in which, with clumsy sarcasm, he attempts to repair the omissions of his earlier announcement—leaves no doubt that none of the intermediaries is to suffer from the Government’s “ concession.” The stocks of tea which have been accumulated in New Zealand were bought by the Government with public money. They have since been released to the public through various trading organisations at a price considerably below the cost of purchase plus traders’ profit and other expenses. At the present time the subsidy on tea from the Consolidated Fund is estimated at approximately a shilling a pound. All taxpayers subscribe to this subsidy, and it is these same taxpayers who will have to make up the reduction in the price of tea which the Minister has announced. It is difficult to see, therefore, how Mr Nordmeyer’s statement that “a substantial proportion of the exchange savings will be passed on to consumers ” can be justified. On the Minister’s own admission the stocks of tea on hand are .considerable, and will not be exhausted for some time. The only effect of the reduction will be that a greater contribution from the general taxpayer will be required towards the real, but hidden, cost of tea, while the price over the counter to tea consumers will become more acceptable. The actual saving is nil; nor can there be any real saving until new purchases are made from abroad.