RISE IN FLOUR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 55, 28 November 1917, Page 6

RISE IN FLOUR

ANOTHER FIVE SHILLINGS A TON A PECULIAR POSITION

Local merchants were advised yesterday that the pneo of ilour f.o.b. in Die south Imd been raised from £14 15s. to ~10 per tun—the maximum price iixed lor Hour by the Government Hoard or Irade. The flour situation is particularly interesting at present in view ot the Oovcrnment's action regarding the importation of Australian iiotir for the future, which has caused quite a flutter in trade circles in Wellington and presumably elsewhere in New Zealand, l'ho position is that the Government has guaranteed New Zealand wheat-growers ss, 10d. per bushel for next season's crop as an encouragement to grow, and, in order that the price of Hour shall be maintained up to a standard that, will boar a fair and reasonable relationship to the price paid for wheat, it has decided to shut out ;}"stialian flour altogether next year, 'ibis is a very serious, thing," 'says Mr. H. Baldwin, president of tho Grain ?(i , I>rot ' Uoo Merchants' Association, both for tho bakers and the people of this country. Nearly all tho bakers in hew Zealand use Australian flour for blending with New Zealand for tho host of reasons: that it conduces to a better class of bread; and, therefore, without tho Australian flour the public will have to put up with a poorer quality of bread. Exhaustive tests have proved, too, that Australian flour is worth anything from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per ton more than _ the New Zealand product, for the simple reason that four or five more loaves can be made out of a sack of Australian flour than can bo made out of New Zealand flour. "So tho prohibition of next year will mean that even if the price of Australian flour recedes to £9 or £10 per ton, which is not at all an~unlikel,v contingency, New Zealand will be unable to benefit by it. That is all right for the wheat-growers of .Now Zealand, but what about the public, and the cost of living? It is quite on the cards t!r if Australia has as bountiful a harvest as has been the cas? for the last few seasons the price will go down, particularly if the difficulty of securing bottoms _ to. convey the wheat to England remains as at present, or oven becomes more aouto. To-day I could sell Australian flour f.o.b. at Melbourne for £13 per ton, whilst New Zealand flour is £15 f.o.b. in the south (less 2£ per cent.). The landed cost for Australian flour in Wellington is £15 155., whilst Zealand flour, which is not so profitable, is £16 Is. 3d. per ten, the charges being freight 14s. (formerly 7s. 6d.), cartage 35., wharfnere 35., insurance and exchange Is. 33."