PRICE OF FLOUR

Southland Times, Issue 17468, 24 March 1915, Page 7

PRICE OF FLOUR

CONTROL OF NIILLKRtL OOVKRXMKXTTS POSITION, (Fer Fnitoil Press Association.) WFLLIXOTOX. Alaivli When the Ocvenimenl arranged to supply Hour millers with Canadian wheat, which had cost (I It per bushel at per bushel millers were required to give an undertaking that the Hour made !rom this wheat would he sold at tit 10 - a ton. Later on millers wen- allowed to charge a higher price for Hour made from a mixture of Canadian wheat and the higher-priced New Zealand wheat, hut the Government still insisted that the price should hi* raised only in proportion to the increased cost of the wheat. The Crime Minister has been getting from millers at frequent intervals returns of Hour made, of the wheat from which it was milled, ami of the prices at which it was sold. It Is difficult to reduce to a rmninoii denominator all the prices for all the mixtures made hy the several mills. some ot whleii have also to pay heavier transport charges, hut the example of one of the Mggest mills in Canterbury will show that all the millers ha\e not set about to rob the consumer. 'Phis firm "I millm-s received tphm bushels of Australian wheat 'X Kaiapoi, which they mixed in the proportion of half and half with New Zealami wheat. From the mixture they made IDE* tons of flour, which they sold at fit 1:i (> net. This flour went to bakers and merchants all over the dominion--in Auckland. Cishorm 1 . the West Coast, and ■ Otago—so that the advantage of Up* reasonable price was not confined to one locality. Nothing could be more satisfactory than that, said Mr Massey. Commenting on the above facts, he explained that in most other eases the percentage of New Zealand wheat used was larger. The same Firm, for instance, had made another lot of _7O tons of Hour from a mixture in the ratio of two bushels of Canadian wheat to seven bushels of X'-w Zealand. This flour, which was distributed just as widely, wa.s sold by the millers at flt> H>per tom