WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1924, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

THE WHEAT EMBARGO. SUBSTITUTE FOR SUBSIDY. [Special, To The Guardian.] WELLINGTON, Jan. 14. Probably the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture will claim to have kept their words in regard to the wheat subsidy. Literally tlioy have done so; actually they have not. Mr Massey in announcing the economies he had effected in the public expenditure took credit- for a very large sum he had saved by discontinuing the subsidy. Mr Noswurthy. less than three months ago, declared that rather than revive the subsidy lie would remove the embargo upon the importation of wheat. His sympathy was with the farmers, hut they could not he allowed t„ lean indefinitely upon the taxpay-

ers. A simple public took these statements to mean that in future the humors would receive no more assistance than they were afforded by a high protective duty and (he cost of sea carriage. But now the Minister of Agriculture, presumably with the concurrence of the absent Prime Minister, announces that, “in conformity with the current year’s arrangements an agreement has been arrived at between millers and farmers under which milling wheat of the confing harvest- will he bought by millers at one penny per bushel advance on last season’s prices.” There is to he no advance in the prices of Hour aiul bread, but The millers are to be allowed to reimburse themselves for this piece of forbearance hv rearranging the prices of bran and pollard. LETTER AND SPIRIT. What has happened, of course, Is that the Ministers, while observing the letter of their promises to the public, have managed to entirely evade t heir spirit. They have not subsidised the farmers and the millers out of the Consolidated Fund, hut in order that the farmers may receive something like Is a bushel over the parity price and that the millers may continue to jlonrish exceedingly they have imposed a tax upon the people's broad, uiiioli will be much heavier and much more in, .|iiitable than a subsidy would have been. It is by keeping the price of bread at an exorbitant figure that the Government is aMe to satisly the clamant demands of the farmers and the millers, and, as bi-end inevitably constitutes a large proportion of the dietary of the poorer class ot the community than it does of the rich, the substitution of indirect, taxation for the wheat subsidy is obviously a lever. id of the henefieient' doctrine cx--1 ires<ed in the term “equality of sacrifice.” Whether it i. desirable or not lo keep on taxing the people in this supplementary fashion lor the encouragement of wheal growing is a question capable of argument, hut, assuming it is, (hen clearly tliero are other industries entitled to the same considcrn-

WHAT TT MEANS. The states tile position judicially in its leading columns. “Tile notion of tlie Government- in shutting out wheat anil flour while they niv at a shade id >ove. pre-war rates in the world's market- and supporting a price lor New Zealand grown wheat lulls- 2~> per cent a hove those prices may have hec-n arguable in time of war*” it sats* “’hut it n dillieult iO t...plain to-day. l.atesl Ausiraiian quotation* tor wheat in Australia, ii- < eivod yesterday, are Is (id per bushel dvdticy. Is .'id and -I- .'Ud Tort Adelaide, and -Is r,.»< 1 Melbourne. Business in lloiir is being done in Sydney at CIO per 101 l for shipment to the bar East and Tidied Kingdom. In Now Zealand tlie price of Hour is Clo 10s with t!m result that bread is Is over the counter bore as compared with Sd in Ki,gland and !!d in Australia, ltougliIv the New Zealand wheat-grower demands Is per lut-hel more than hi* wlieat is worth in the world’s market, and to ensure him getting it the Government prohibits imports.” The ■•Tost” recalls on second thoughts that to ibis arbitrary arrangement is added the anomaly that two or three million bushels of wheat will have to be imported to save the Dominion from a bread famine.

“PREKEI! KNCE." Tin., fuel uC tlu' matter is Mr Massey j s s 0 obsessed li.v tlio notion of "prcforI'liit'" lio cannot see ihi! futility of attemptin'.;' to lonv production amf tiado into tinttaltiral clianiicls I>y regulations mill OrdiTs-in-C'oiiio il. The tanners of tile Dominion declare they i-annot Ki-mv -wheat at the parity of the world's prices. They must he subsidised, they say, or they must go out oi the business. The (lorcrnmont has been subsidising them, in otic form 01 another, for six or seven years, and still they are not supplying the amount oi wheat the cooniry ref|tiires. If the subsidy were withdrawn and if. as a eon sot, nenec, the fanners pave up wheat growing, the public, it seems, would lie bet ter off by the amount of the subsidy. Hut Mr Massey in his obsession, honestly believes that u Xcw Zealand did not produce year by year its own bread-stuffs its very existetice as an independent community would be imperilled. His tear so far as other sane men can see is uttoilt groundless. Australia and Canada are the natural wheat-fields of the Empire and wltni bread-stuffs New Zealand would not prow for i 1 sell th.ey pladly would supply.