THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12055, 10 July 1917, Page 2

THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

CANTERBURY MILLS' DISADVANTAGE. i WHEN AUSTRALIAN WHEAT IS USED. One of the. matters brought under the notice of the Prime Minister soon after his return was the question of the price of flour at the different centres in the Dominion, and the peculiar results likely to follow upon the importation of Australian wheat. As yet no definite pronouncement has been officially made as to the arrangements made with the Commonwealth, but the assumption is that the new wheat, is to he sold to millers at 6s 3d per bushel, landed at. any of the principal New Zealand ports, this- price having been charged for the shipment recently landed on the Dunedin Avharf. The price of flour at the mills is regulated by Order-in-Council. In Christchurch the maximum price is £ls petton, but Auckland millers are allowed to charge £'l6 per ton. in order to cover the cost of transport of wheat from the Canterbury and North Ota go grain fields to the milling centre, 'if Australian wheat is sold to millers at the flat rate of fis 3d a bushel, will the Canterbury millers still have to sell flour at £l" less per ton than their neighbours? The men concerned are requesting that some arrangement should be, made to even matters up somewhat. Of course, it may be urged that Canterbury millers had the opportunity of buying up all the wheat likely to b« required in the next twelve months' operations .and that if they have to buy t-ho imported wheat the fault is their own. There are one or two matters in this connection, however, that are likely to be missed by the person making the above sweeping assertion. In the first place, the local millers were not the only wheat operators on tho Canterbury market last autumn. The Auckland millers-bad their agents buying up every bushel they could lay their hands on. Again, it has to be remembered that wheat has to be paid for in hard cash. Taking a rough average, wheat -would cost £1 per sack, and, supposing a mill to require 100,0(10 sacks of wheat for twelve months' business, .1100.000 would have to be availalbe. apart altogether from the expense of running the concern; and sums of one hundred thousand pounds do not grow on every wpieat stalk. There is the fact, of course, that a miller or two made little effort to secure supplies at the ruling rate. They mav have believed the market was likely to come hack. Tint it is more than probable that they were'led astray by the reports and rumours of many months ago that the Government had an actual option over a million bushels fit wheat in Australia. At that time wheat could have been bought in the Commonwealth for export at 4s 9d per bushel. How those reports originated, and how much fact there was understood to be at the back of them will possibly never be stated, but more than one official utterance can be quoted, it is stated, to justify reliance upon the report, which has since proved unfounded. There for instance, the fact that millers were officially assured that there would be no shortage of wheat. And some people claim to recollect- a ministerial assurance of some months ago that- the Government was making provision for keeping New Zealand supplied with wheat. As for the objection that the Canterbury millers will probablv be thelast people to buy imported wheat, this may not be difficult to disprove. £ Already one North Canterbury flour miller, it is understood, would be glad of advice of the arrival of a cargo of wheat at Lvttelton.