WHEAT DUTIES

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1932, Page 6

WHEAT DUTIES

.REVIEW AGAIN URGED. BY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. (Per Press Association — Copyright.) AUCKLAND, August 4. Following the premier’s reported statement that' it is not the Government’s intention to review' th'e wheat duties tliis year, the president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce } on behalf of the CbiMiciil, Has written, protesting against the decision. He says: “The present rate of duty is equivalent to 70 per cent, ad valorem, and keeps up the cost of living unduly. It makes revision of wag© rates di:.; cult and so retards reduction of productive costs. “The yield of wheat lands per acre in New Zealand is some four times as great as Australian' and no protection should he necessary; Pastoral farmers are. being ruined while wheat farmers are being maintained in. a privileged position and some of th'e rank and file of the: papulation are on the starvation line. “The present temper of th’e community is not such as to tolerate the maintenance of the privileged dlasseis.”

Thi letter concludes: “If the Government doe« not fed strong e'npugli to reduce the duties itself, and defy ibhle srnal] but- noisy minority of the •by n(o means disinterstied .'advocates of high wheat and flour duties, \ve suggest that it set uip an entirely independent non-political foyfiT commission to report on the subject?''