MILLERS’ SIDE OF CASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 776, 24 September 1929, Page 10

MILLERS’ SIDE OF CASE

WHEAT INQUIRY RESUMES NECESSITY OF DUTIES WELLINGTON, Today. The select committee of the House, which is considering the question or the wheat duties, resumed public sit- , tings today. Lengthy evidence was given on behalf of the millers in favour of the retention of the present ! sliding scale. Mr. R. K. Ireland, giving evidence j on behalf of Distributors, Limited, said I he had been connected with the flouv- | milling industry from his youth upward and was now chairman of the company. During the past 30 years they had operated their mills (,a> under the fixed rate duty, (b) under j Government control. tel under the present sliding scale duties.

' In his opinion the sliding scale gave the best results. The policy of New ! Zealand in the last 40 years had leaned toward protection and it . seemed to him that if protection were necessary in any industry at all. an overwhelmingly strong case could be made out for protecting the agricultural industry, the object being to make the Dominion self-supporting as far as wheat and flour were concerned. NEED FOR SELF-SUPPORT

Air. Ireland stressed the need in these times of war, national stress and maritime strikes to make New Zealand self-supporting in regard to food supplies. Wheat lands gave a greater net return than would the same land used for other purposes. If New Zealand abandoned wheat growing in favour of sheep raising there would be a dislocation of labour and a drift of labour from the country to the town. Also most of the flour mill employees would have to be discharged, as undoubtedly flour would be imported rather than wheat. Without protection the area devoted to wheat would be greatly reduced. The sliding scale had prevented violent fluctuations iu prices and had given a fair price to farmers. Another reason why New Zealand should be self-supporting, as far as wheat was concerned, was the dependence of the dairying, pig and poultry industries of the Dominion on supplies of bran and pollard. Fifty thousand tons of bran and pollard and 5,000 tons of meal were manufactured annually. If New Zealand had been dependent on Australia for these duty free, the cost would have been £30,000 more.

He desired to say, on behalf of New Zealand millers, in reply to the statements that they were making undue profits, that. they had no more fear of the results of the investigation to their books and profits than they had during the period J. 916 to 1924. ‘it was not correct to say the millers refused to buy wheat from the pool. Rather it had been that the pool had discouraged grov. | ? to sell wheat. They were not antagonistic to the pool, which did not have sufficient control of crops to be a menace.