The Milling Trust.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 50, 11 December 1902, Page 18

The Milling Trust.

The position of matters in connection with the Colony's flour and bread supply has been energetically brought under the notice of Sir Joseph Ward at Christchurch, and a number of allegations have been made which the combined Millers' and Bakers' Associations have found some difficulty in answering. The millers allege that prior to the combination they were suffering from over-competition, owing to the excessive number of mills. This seems a very extraordinary confession for business men to make. In the course of their elaborate defence against a previous attack in Dunedin, they proved that they had gauged the requirements of the Colony to a nicety. Bread does cot fluctuate much with respect to the quantity used. The careful housewife does indeed curtail her baker's bill as much as possible in times' of high prices. She does so by various domestic devices, but after all the diminution does not amount to much). Nor when bread is cheap is there so very much more consumed. Assuming that the demand is stable and that the wants of the Colons can be accurately gauged, it is surprising that the later entrants to the trade should have embarked in it. Millers are usually grain speculators, and people do not usually associate the calling of a grain merchant with so much simplicity as to build an expensive flour mill in the full knowledge that there were already in existence more than sufficient mills to supply the Colony with flour. The millers have undoubtedly alienated sympathy from themselves by allying themselves with the bakers and jointly boycotting any bakers, as is alleged, who were disposed

to foe independent. And though wheat admittedly stands at a high figure, it is shrewdly surmised that the farmers have not got all the benefit, and also that the margin between the cost of wheat and that of flour ia too great. This also applies to the margin between the price of flour and that of bread, the suspicion being that both millers and bakers have taken advantage of tho high prico of wheat, together with the award of the Arbitration Court, to exact undue profit. The matter is one of extreme difficulty to suggest a settlement /or. State Intervention would mean State farms, and the farmers would not relish that. But it may bo desirable to introduce legislation to limit the operations of combines, especially in matters respecting food supply.