Untitled

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 187, 12 September 1914, Page 8

The flour millers have raised the price of flour to £l3 ton, which is an increase of 30 per cent, on the price that obtained before the war. Ostensibly the reason is that, with wheat at 4/9 a "bushel; it does not pay to mill it into flour for less than £l3. But as most of the big millers had bought, long before the war commenced, all the wheat they required to carry them over to the next harvest, the real reason of the rise in flour is that these millers shq'' an opportunity of making some money, and they are reaching out for it with both hands. It is quite likely that some of the smaller millers who lacked the capital to lay in stocks of wheat earlier in the season, are now making a market for it at current prices. They must buy wheat at the ruling rates, or close down their mills. But where does the public come in? It may sympathise with the small miller, but it will not shut its eyes to the fact that although he may have a legitimate excuse for charging £l3 a ton for flour the big millers who bought heavily when wheat was 3/6 stand to make a small fortune out of the present situation. Some of the millers would have us belieA T £ that milling of recent years has been an unremunerative business. The cost of wheat production in Australia is so low that even with the protection of the import duties on flour it has been difficult to carry on the business of flour milling at a profit. Granting all that, it is impossible to justify the present grab for profits at a time when there are numerous unemployed in the. country and many poor people are feeling the pinch of poverty. The sooner the Government takes a hand in the game the better.