WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 January 1929, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PRICE OF BREAD

EFFECT OF PROTECTION

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, Jan. 24

The Hon. J. E. Gobbe, the new Minister of Industries and Commerce, lias been telling the good people of Christchurch that the high price they are paying for bread is largely due to the heavy cost of distribution. Christchurch consumers, it seems, are fastidious in their taste for the “ staff o* 1 life ” and frequently go far afield to secure the loaves that appeal to their palates. • The cost of obtaining them runs into as much as a peijny per twopound loaf, and in some cases into even more. Mr J. W. Collins, the secretary of the Department, supplementing the remarks of his chief said tlial during the past year the Dominion had imported 7(11,000 bushels of wheat anf' 9,400 tons of flour, which meant a los; of £130,000 to the milling industry. It was a cruel loss, Mr Collins said when the raw material was available in the Dominion. He looked for a remedy for this sort of thing in a conference between a number df State departments, but did not explain how that was going to help the consumer.

CASE FOR. CONSUMERS

The “ Evening Post,” which has persistently protested against the Govern ment spoon-feeding the wheat grower; at the expense of the rest of the community, has no patience with Mr Coblie’s wary pronouncement. “Mr Coblie, as a business man,” it says, knows very well that consumers arc helpless in this matter. They arc nol .largely responsible for the over-lapping and wasteful methods at present in ex istence. Fie should know, too, that New Zealand consumers, apart from bakers’ overhead charges, are paying one penny to twopence more per loaf than the export value of wheat and economical milling justify. The reason for this is to he sought less in the cos‘ of the distribution of the loaf than ir the special favours at the public expense accorded to the wheat and fiouindustries.” Whether or not Mr Cob be has definitely made up his mind oi this question remains to be seen ; hut it is certain that a very large pro portion of the electors of the Nortl Island, at any rate, look with disapproval upon the wheat subsidy.

A MIS-CONSTRUCTION

A correspondent, who for some year was resident in Wellington, and sfO maintains a close association with the Dominion, writing from London on Decern her 1-th, places n most astounding construction upon the summary appearing in the “ London Times ” of the speech delivered by the Rt. Hon. J. C>. Coates in the House of Representatievs on the previous day. The “Times” reports this morning, die says, “ that Mr Coates is determined to oppose Sir Joseph Ward in ovoi> way possible.” Turning to the cable actually appearing in the “Times” it is found that the Wellington correspondent of the great London daily so if nr from suggesting anything of the kind furnished an admirable condensation of Mr Coates’s chivalrous speech. It told how the retiring Prime Minister had pledged himself to assist his sueeessor in promoting the best interests of the country, and how he reserved

only the right to criticise and oppose measures of which lie disapproved. Its whole tone was irreproachable. LAND SETTLEMENT.

Tlw. Hon. G. WL Forbes, the Minister of Lands and Agriculture, lias been as good as bis word in getting the Crown Land Commissioners and the members oif tbe Land Purchase Board together to confer in regard to the land policy of the new Government. The question of bind settlement did not receive tV attention it should have done at the recent general election, partly be'n ,,c it had ceased to command the attention of urban electors, and partly because the good intentions and earnest efforts of the Reform Government to people the waste places of the Dominion had not been attended by a great deal oif success. Mr Forbes lias the advantage of thirty-five years of personal and practical experience in land settlement of the very kind the Dominion stands in need, and, judging from what he has said on the subject since his assumption of office, he is not going to lie easily turned from bis purpose of extending the country’s area oif production. All parties may wish him well in the campaign upon which lie has entered.