BURDEN OF WHEAT DUTIES

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1931, Page 12

BURDEN OF WHEAT DUTIES

PROPOSED REDUCTION THIS YEAR.

“STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION.”

“The burden of the wheat duties has engaged considerable public attention during the year,” said Mr. L. M. Moss in his presidential address to the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last night. “In the first season that the duty was' in operation the production was 9,500,000 bushels, but this had declined annually until the production this year was only 6,500,000 bushels, necessitating the importation of 2,000,000 bushels to supplement the New Zealand grown supplies,” said Mr. Moss. “The cost to' New Zealand was estimated at £1,000,000 per annum, but the duty is defended on the ground that it protected the country from the danger’ of a costly bread shortage in the event of failure to grow our own wheat requirements. “The solution of the pisition is not an easy one, and the proposal to reduce the duties this year is in the right direction. If the world prices for wheat during the coming year remain low the wheat growers will have difficulty in persuading the dairy producers of Taranaki that this special protection to one class of producer should be retained. The removal of the duty on bran and pollard has been of material benefit to the dairy farmer, but this has been very largely offset by the imposition of the dumping duty, intended to counteract the benefit that would have ' been received from the favourable rate of exchange between New Zealand and Australia. The dairy farmer sells his products in an unsheltered inarket, and buys his requirements in a highly protected market.” '