THE SLIDING SCALE

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20177, 4 March 1931, Page 6

THE SLIDING SCALE

TYPICAL NORTH ISLAND VIEW. Every -week there is a tilt from Northern newspapers . .or a politicians atTo'ut the sliding scale of wheat duties. It does not concern these agitators at all that the present crop was sown nine months ago, when costs were still.up in the air, under a specific promise from the Government that its marketing would be under the then existing scale of duties. The crop will be completely disposed of for ten months or more, and so no alteration in the conditions until the expiry of that term can take effect. However, the Auckland Chamber of Commerce is once more into the breach. An Auckland paper of lafit Saturday states: —

Congratulations to the Prime Minister, tho Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes, on his announcement that the whole question of the present high rate of duties on Wheat and flour is to be investigated, have been extended by the Auckland "Chamber of Commerce in a letter despatched this week. "We have for some time past been seriously concerned at the fact that the present high rate of duties, amounting approximately to 100 per cent., has operated to prevent that fall in the cost of living which is so necessary and which would facilitate the coming reduction in wages," says the letter. "The effect of the high duties is shown by the fact that, whereas a 21b loaf sells at 6jd in Auckland, the price of the 41b loaf is at present only 7i&, if not lower, in London, which is situated in . a country which imports wheat. There seems to be no valid Teason why, when' all classes in the community are faced with a. necessity for an adjustment of expenditure, the wheat farmers should be protected from lower world price levels, and we congratulate you on tackling this difficult question."

A Newspaper Opinion, The Wanganui "Herald" made the following, contribution to the subject last week: The Rt. Hon. G. W. a farmer and a wheat grower himself, is confronted by a very difficult problem in which many side issues are involved. It was in an early stage of the war that the National Cabinet conceived the idea of assuring the \ continuance of tho Dominion's- bread supply by subsidising the wheatgrowers. Froni\ 1 this begining the farmers ..managed to i obtain one concession and another until wheat'growing became the best assured i industry in the middle part of the South 1 Island. ' ' 1 Now a' Slump has imposed itself upon country, the public is beginning | to realise that for the laßt fourteen or fifteen years it has been paying more ! • for bread and for other products from,j .wheat,, than-1 any other country in -the . f.World" -his/ paid. Thq Prime Minister. v has stated that < this 'state of ; afEairs -cannot "be tolerated indefinitely, but so far he has not indicated how it is to be repaired, but with the necessity for' reducing, salaries and wages in the Civil Service and tho Governments assurance • that -vthe cost, of living;will action must be /taken" tb- en&re that tbe people will be r able to buy cheaper bread. The of ) the tariff on Australian and Canadian wheat and flour is a necessity." which cannot be neglected, ajad'wehojpe to Mr Forbes make th'o alteration at the same time as he r ' \