Price of Flour.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1922, Page 4

Price of Flour.

JULId’M'S AND BAKERS. BIG ASSOCIATION TO OPERATE. Wednesday’s Wellington “Evening Post-” has the following:—

F roin September Ist, “Distributors,! Limited,” will operate. It will perform fiinqtiqiis somewhat analogous to the former New Zealand Hour Millers Association, and control the distribution of flour. TJlie headquarters wj 11 be in Christchurch, and the name of a gentleman well known in business circles in Wellington is mentioned as managing director. The objects ol tnis, orgiubsatipn ol Horn milling interests include the sole direction ot the sales of flour and of all other milling products. The proposed control ol outputs and sales of flour were the subjects ot several iuipor-Gurl dttottsdons of the trade in the South Island, hut there were various obstacles then in the way "i linking up the many interests concerned, and tlie sequel was a brief hut brisk “price-cutting” campaign, in wjiich flpur was quoted by dissentient millers at Lit), and even £ls, per ton, while ,t!ie Government price fixed by the Board of Trade regulation was LIS per ton, less 2) per cent, all pi;jqe,s being free o,u board at .South Island porjs.

,The “Post” is credibly informed tli-.it a considerable amount of business was .done with some bakers on these terms, for the opportunity of obtaining flour at least L 'l pur ton under the Hoard ,of Trade prices was too good to let pass. The cutting had, however, a disturbing effect in the baking trade, especially in cases jvhere heavy stocks ol Hour bought at BIS per ton were carried or contracted for. >

The public was vitally interested in the matter, because it seemed that it would reap ,thc benefit of the huge harvest of 1921-22, which not only met the .Dojpinipn’s own demands, hut had a surplus of roughly 3,000,000 bushels of wheat available for exporting. The heavy production was, of course, stimulated by the Government guaranteeing farmers prices from 5s fid to 6s 3d per bushel, according to variety of wheat raised, with increments month by month up to next October. The wheat market prices, as quoted in cables from London, do not show that exporting to that market will give a handsome return to the Government to meet its guarantee, even it they do not actually result in a loss. To support the guaranteed price of wheat the price of flour was fixed hv the Board .of Trade. Further importations from Australia

were and are prohibited. Association prices for flour in Melbpurno on August 12th, by the way, were £l2 10s per ton, and for bran and pollard £8 10s per ton (2000 pounds in each case). A conference of millers and bakers was held in Christchurch at the end of last month, in which the bakers, it i stated, spoke their mind pretty freeh on price “cutting” by millers and its unsettling effects on trade. Bakers brought to hear pressure, it is stated upon the millers to close up their ranks and stop cutting tlie price of flour. Ai agreement was then come to, “cutting” was stopped, and the Hoard ol Trade regulation price of £lB per tor for (lour was reverted to therefore m reduction followed in the mice ol bread, as it would have done had tin price of flour been lowered.