PRICE OF BREAD

Southland Times, Issue 21093, 27 May 1930, Page 8

PRICE OF BREAD

AN EX-FARMER’S VIEWS. OBJECTION TO WHEAT DUTIES. The announcement that the price of bread would probably be increased by a halfpenny the 41b loaf by the bakers of Invercargill has led to a certain amount of indignation, and an ex-farmer voiced a protest to a reporter yesterday. He said that there might be a justifiable reason for the increase as far as the bakers were concerned, but in his opinion the people of the country were being asked to pay too much for their bread for the sake of a small section of the community. “The' early farmers in Canterbury sold wheat for three shillings a bushel and retired on it,” he said. "They certainly sold their land at high prices, and that is the whole trouble. Their successors say that their land is too dear to compete with Australian wheat, and the Government supports them with a high tariff. If they cannot grow wheat and sell it in open competition, they .should grow something else. The same thing applies to lemons. Why should the community be asked to support a few people who' want to grow something that doesn’t pay for the growing? The thing is not logical or it would be applied to oats. “It costs about £9 to bring wheat from Australia, and the millers have got to pay six shillings a bushel for it because of a high duty,’’ he continued. “Every man in the country has got to pay and only a few profit by it. The growers even make aH> sorts of complaints and go as far as to argue that, it costs them 15/- an acre to plough their land. They’re not farmers at all or they would be ploughing their own land. I could plough my land for 5/- an acre, and a man who has to pay to have his land ploughed isn’t a farmer. He is a landowner and probably a speculator. They say that it would not be safe to withdraw the duty because it would stop the growth of wheat in New Zealand and might lead to a shortage. That is all nonsense. There is no danger of a shortage of wheat, and it is time that the people of the country were given the benefit of cheaper importations.” The duty on wheat and flour varies according to the price of wheat in Australia, but is usually in the vicinity of £6. When the price of wheat in Australia goes down the duty rises and when the price of Australian wheat rises the duty decreases. In effect the price of wheat is kept at the same level in New Zealand by a varying duty.