IMPORTED FLOUR

Otago Witness, Issue 3274, 13 December 1916, Page 11

IMPORTED FLOUR

DUTY REMITTED. WELLINGTON, December 8.The Government has decided, on the recommendation of the Board of Trade, to remit the duty on imported flour as from to-day. The information from Wellington that the Government has decided to remit the duty of £1 per ton on imported flour has caused no little surprise amongst local millers, and wonder has been expressed that the duty of 9d per cental on wheat has not also been removed. Flour in Dunedin to-day is quoted at £ls a ton, less 2i per cent .discount. It is quoted in Melbourne at £l2 f.o.b. net.; freight costs £1 2s 6d, and other charges, say, ss. It will therefore be possible to land Australian flour in the dominion at £ls 7s 6d, as against the present net price here of £l4 12s 6d. Millers assert that on the high values they have to pay-to-day for wheat they cannot manufacture flour at a profit at even £ls. Had, however, the Government taken off the duty on wheat, the holders in the dominion perforce have to drop their prices accordingly, and millers would have a better chance of competing with Australian flour. Bakers in the dominion have not been slow to forecast a. sharp advance in the quotations of floui\ and have purchased thousands of tons. " forward "—to quote one Dunedin miller—at prices ranging from £l2 10s and less to £l4. Some local bakers have purchased sufficient flour " forward" to last them until the middle of next year. Even if Australian flour is brought into the dominion at lower rates than those ruling in the local market, the millers have to supply their " forward" contracts, and the bakers have to accept them. Onlv those bakers who have not bought " forward " will be able to purchase the Australian flour—for the next few months, at any rate. Tnoso bakers who have bought flour "forward at lower prices even than those at which Australian flour can be landed will, however, to quote a commonplace, be " standing on velvet." It is interesting to note that the suggested prices recommended by the Board of Trade m its report of last June stated that when wheat at the mill was 5s to 5s 3d flour should be quoted at £l3, and bread (cash at counter) at 7d. Allowing id advance in the price of bread for every advance of 30s in the price of flour, it will bo seen that bread to-day, with flour at £ls, should be 8d at the very outside. Instead, it is Bd, and the master bakers are considering the advisability of increasing the price by another id. The figures as to advances in the price of bread in correspondence with advances in the price of flour are affected, however, by the fact that the bokers have now to pay a war bonus of 10 per cent, The drawback of bad debts is also said by thorn to be on an ascending scale. A telegram of protest was sent to the Board of Trade by Mr Peter Virtue, of the Northern Roller Milling Company. PROTEST FROM AUCKLAND.

Mr P. Virtue, of tho Northern Rolling Milling Company, has sent tho following telegram to tho Hon. W. D. S. MtcDonald on tho question of the suspension of the customs duty on flour: — "Re liquor and flour trades: When numerous and large petitions were lodged with the Government to take a referendum on 6 o'clock closing to cheapen the cost of living and sober up, similar to what has been adopted in every other part of the world to win the war, one or two Crown Ministers then;, said it would be breaking faith with tho trade to do so, and quoted in support of their objections the Kaiser's scrap of paper. You are aware the liquor trade has only a yearly permit, and yon may deem it a hazardous one, yet when prohibition is before the electors, and, if it is carried, the trado would be allowed two or three years to retreat. The flour trade is not a deleterious one, and the dominion has been under a pr< cctive tariff

since its discovery, and last session a Bill was passed augmenting the inadequate protection on wheat and Hour —i.e., compared with the commonwealth's Labour Government's. Yet the Board of Trade, dominated by free trade and without the slightest inquiry from millers, demands the same Ministry to forthwith withdraw the duty on flour, and it submits, without any public explanation, and breaks its tariff. If the present Board of Trade has such mandatory powers no industry is safe, and may be ruined at its displeasure. Vide London cables, Bth inst. : Mr Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Great Britain, states: 'Every effort will bo made to encourage farmers to increase home-grown food.' But our Board of Trade is of a different opinion."