THE MILLERS AND FLOUR PRICES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2415, 22 March 1915, Page 4

THE MILLERS AND FLOUR PRICES

•AN EXAMPLE OF FAIR DEALING* When' thp Government arranged to supply to flour-millers Canadian wheat which had cost 6s. 3d. per bushel. ,at os. 9d. per bushel, millers were required to give an undertaking that t'he flour made from thiß wheat would be sold' at £14 10s. a ton. Later, millers were allowed to charge a higher price for flour made from a mixture of Canadian wheat and the higher priced New Zealand wheat, but the Government still insisted that t'he price should be raised only in proportion to the increased oost of the wheat. The Prime Minister has been getting from millers at freauint intervals returns of flour made, of the wheat from which it was milled, and of the prices at which it was sold. It is difficult to reduce to a common denominator all the prices for all the mixtures made by the several wills, some of which have also to pay heavier transport charges, but the example' of one of the biggest mills in Canterbury will show that the millers have not all set about to exploit the oonsumer. This firm of millers received 6000 bushels of Australian wheat, ex Kaiapoi, which they mixed in the proportion of half-and-half with _ New Zealand wheat. From the mixture thiy made 263 tons of flour, which they sold at £14 13s. 6d. net. This flour went to bakers and merchants all over the Dominion—in Auckland, Gisborne, the West Coast, and Otago—so that the advantage of the reasonable price was not confined to one locality.

"Nothing could _be more satisfactory than that," said Mr. Massey, com. menting on the above facts. In most otter caseß, le explained, Hhe percentage of New Zealand wheat used was larger. The same firm, for instance, had made another lot of 270 tons of flour from a mixture in the ratio of two bushels of Canadian wheat to seven of New Zealand. This flour, which was. distributed just as widely, was sold by the millers at £16 10s. pec ton.