The Sun MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1916. THE WHEAT AND FLOUR POSITION

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 885, 11 December 1916, Page 6

The Sun MONDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1916. THE WHEAT AND FLOUR POSITION

The action of speculators in forcing up the price of wheat has led the Government to intervene with an Order-in-Council suspending the duty on imported flour, which will have the effect of bringing in the Australian article at a price estimated to be about 30/- per ton below what it is being milled for in the Dominion. Obviously the local mills cannot meet this competition until there is a substantial drop in wheat, while those who have stocks of any magnitude will be faced with heavy losses. We think the Government would have done better to remove the duty on wheat and leave flour alone for the present. Why should the people of New Zealand send their money out of the country to keep Australian' mills running while closing up their own? If the milling were done locally we should not only keep our own millers and their hands employed, but we should also have the offal and by-products which are so essential to the poultry industry.! The Government has an amazing i capacity for bungling everything it! touches, and it seems to us that it is destined to go on bungling to the end of the war. But common sense suggests that if it is going to interfere at all with the ordinary course of events, it should take counsel with some of the leading growers, millers, bakers, and a representative of the consumers, and devise a scheme which will cover the entire business from the sowing of the wheat to the sale of bread to the public. We do not see why the Government cannot contract with the farmers to grow a certain acreage at a fixed price for the wheat. Then it could enter into an agreement with the mills, according to their capacity to grind it into flour at a price to be agreed upon, and finally with the bakers in the chief centres to sell bread at a figure per loaf which corresponded to the prices of flour and wheat. This perpetual tinkering with the situation merely engenders uncertainty and speculation. If a man in arranging his business has to gamble on what a politician will do next, he is bound to shorten the odds in his own favour and against the public. The result is that the Government's wellmeant efforts to protect the consumer missfire. But under some such arrangement as we suggest, all parties would be protected. And they are entitled to be protected. The time for philanthropy and for loading one person with another's burden is gone. What is wanted is a businesslike scheme which will be fair to everyone. The position as far as the wheat-grower is concerned is complicated by the fact that unless he can get a pretty good return for his next season's wheat he has every inducement to go in for sheep. Meat and wool are bringing such attractive prices that a farmer is a fool to bother with wheat unless he can be sure of !)/- a bushel, or perhaps a little more. But a Government guarantee of 5/- would probably result in as big an acreage being sown next season as was put in this year, and it is to the interest of the Dominion that suflicient wheat for domestic requirements should be raised in the Dominion. The dangers and disabilities of being dependent on other

countries for our bread have been! pointed out so often that it is unnecessary to do it again. This much,'

i however, is clear: unless the Government aels promptly and gives evidence of an intention ami a capacity I to solve this problem, the wheat and I Hour business of the Dominion will I be seriously injured, and no portion of New Zealand will suffer more j than Canterbury. I