THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 67, 22 March 1915, Page 2

THE PRICE OF FLOUR.

[lO the Editor Stratford Post.] yj r) —in your issuo of to-day, yon report that Mr Massey, speaking as a guest of the New Zealand Club, says, in referring to the price of wheat, that we in New Zealand have not much to complain of. Now, with your permission, I intend to show that, we in New Zealand have a great deal to complain of. When the war commenced, the people began to rush the stores with orders for Hour, and Mr Massey's Government immediately made a public statement raying that there was no cause for alarm as there was ample wheat in :ne country to last until next harvest. There has been no wheat exported to my knowledge, and very little has changed hands, showing plainly that the great bulk of the wheat was in the miller's stores before war broke out. Now the wheat in the country was bought by the millers and merchants (the terms are synonymous in many instances) at a price ranging from 3s 6d to 4s per bushel, and did not cost a penny more to produce than is ususnal; the farmer has not benefitted one iota by the rise, except in a very few cases, so can any one tell me why the public of \?w ealand has to pay just double the price for flour as compared with eight months ago ? I am told that the miller's normal profit on flour is los per ton, and some weeks Tgo the profit had risen to £3 los per ton. It is even higher now, as the price has been raised two or three times since the above figures were given to me. Trusts and combines are supposed to be non-existent in New Zealand, but ii'sdei' the nuf.'ce flourishes, on the necessities of the people, one of the most rapacious examples of the genus Trust that can be met with in the world.

On the outbreak of war, the paiblie olainly showed its opinion of the Trust, by rushing for supplies of flour, well knowing that, the staple article of food would be the first means of exploitation to be used for the enrichment of a few. We have only to go back about fifteen months for an example, the big strike. Without elaborating any further, I feel sure that 95 per cent, of the public will agree with me that I have shown that we in New Zealand have ample cause for complaint. Thanking you in anticipation. T am, etc. R. HEAVEN. 19-3-15.