WHEAT AND FLOUR

Southland Times, Issue 21580, 18 December 1931, Page 8

WHEAT AND FLOUR

DUTY ON IMPORTS PROPOSED INCREASE NOT FAVOURED BUSINESS MEN PROTEST (Per United Press Association.) New Plymouth, December 17. The decision of the Customs Department to increase the duty on wheat and flour imported from Australia by the amount of the exchange premium on the f.o.b. price of imports which would be obtainable at the rate current for the time being, irrespective of whether the importer received the benefit of the premium or not, was the subject of a deputation of business men to the Hon. R. Masters, Minister of Industries and Commerce. In asking that the decision of the department be not put into effect, Mr Gorden Fraser said Australian flour was looked upon by the vast majority of bakers as a necessity for blending purposes, and it was absolutely essential during the period when the new season’s wheat was being Used by local millers. If the object was extra revenue, would not a decrease in duty be better as it would largely increase imports, but the sliding scale of duties was framed not for revenue purposes, but to at least restrict to a minimum, if not to abolish, the import of flour. This Order in Council, increasing the duty by roughly £1 a ton, would, to a large extent, directly nullify the reduction in duty that Parliament had decreed would operate next year. These small imports of Australian flour were the only protection the public had from prices being inflated by the millers’ combination. Mr Masters said in reply that the sliding scale of duty was not intended by Parliament to be a producer of revenue. It was a protection of the milling and wheat industry of New Zealand. He would put the views expressed by the deputation before the acting-Minister of Customs, the Hon. G. W. Forbes.