THE WHEAT DUTY.

Shannon News, 26 February 1926, Page 3

THE WHEAT DUTY.

WHAT THE FLOUR'MILLEBJS THINK MILLS MAY HAVE TO CLOSE. AUSTRALIAN FLOUR 'THE DOMINATINGFACTOR. "What will he; the real effect of the Government's wheat and flour scheme?" In the following trenchant, reply, Mr John C. Young, managing ( director of Messrs Hodder and Tolley, Ltd., Palmerston North, answered a Manawatu Times reporter's qui-., estion yesterday. "The Australian flourmiller will be delighted, since he wall capture most l of the' trade, whilst on the oilier hand | ■all the various New Zealand interests will suffer.'' "The dairy and poultry industries will have to pay an increased price for pollard and bran, since it wall be sold on. Australian parity.. But, more serious than tha<t Is the jeopardising of the offal supply itself since New Zealand will' only receive whatever quantity Australia oan spare. The southern wheat grower will , also suffer-, as his price for wheat is , depressed by the unprotected and un- • restricted importations of Australian flour; consequently he must accept a correspondingly low price." "When ii gets. down to that level only can the New Zealand miller buy ] '.Meantime, he must close down his mill and pay off his hands "The apparent concession to the North Island poultry .man is illusory, for he will immediately pay a higher price for his bran and pollard and buying from Australia duty free may not cheapen his wheat cost, for he should later be aible to buy even cheaper from the South Island, where wheat prices must inevitably come down. Further, Mr Hawken's avowed policy of stimulating wheat-growing defeats itself by depressing ■ Wheat values 'and consequently discouraging wheat-growing. Whilst he retains undisturbed the duty on wheat in order, so he says, to give confidence'to the wheat-grow-er in stabilising the duties, yet ne himself breaks that, cjmftdein.ce by forthwith suspending the duty on North Island poultry wheat, with the afore-mentioned result, "Mr H'awkeii has been emphatically warned that this is a year demanding special treatment with such a large wheat storage. He has forgotten a chain is only as strong as the weakest link. "The heartJ of the problem lies here —that Australian flour is now'regularly landing in New Zealand, costing about £l9. That obviously fixes the selling price of . New Zealand flour -which means in the form oi | wheat, say 6s 5d f.0.1b. South. Yet that, central fact is the one'Mr Hiawken ignores. "Instead, he implies in his clever-ly-worded statement that the wheatgrowers will get a high price; there will be plenty of bran ad pollard supplies for the dairy and poultry industries and flour will be unaltered. "In a word, the weak link m Mr Hawken's scheme assumes the New Zealand flourmiller is a blithering idiot, who, -although he can only get some.6s 5d f.ovb. for his wheat will submit to paying 7s or even higher prices, to the farmer. "If he, instead, choses the lesser of two evils and closes his mill, the result will be stalemate, the farmer awaiting the anticipated high price, the miller waiting for the price to drop to enable Mm to grist to a profit. Meantime the Australian miller does our flour business and the offal supplies both in regard to price and supply are at the mercy of Australia."