WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1915. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 111, 13 January 1915, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1915. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

It is doubtful at the present time to say which is’dlie more absorbing topic, the war or the price of bread. There are so many conflicting statements made that one has great difficulty in getting a fairly approximate idea of how matters really are. The people have a right to know whether they are being exploited or not; those who are clamouring for flic removal of all restrictions so that they may put prices up to anything they think fit do know the true state, and if that party would disclose what they know, it might stifle, if not altogether stop the outcry, or, on the other hand, it might justify the people’s claim that there exists no real cause for raising the cost of the staff of into something approaching famine prices. Of course, ho honest man will urge, that because some dozen men, comprising the Flourmillers’ Association have the public in a tight corner, they have any moral right to force up prices to a point that would mean semistarvation to thousands of our poorest people. It is certainly interesting to follow the flonrmiliers in their explanations of the attitude they are taking. They fell a fairly corroborative story, and if they are dissembling in any way they have studied 'their parts pretty well. There is one large miller, however, who puts quite a different aspect on the situation: Mr Virtue, of “Champion Muscle Raiser” fame, manager of the

Northern Roller Mills at Auckland, who is always original, if anything, lays the whole blame on the people themselves. He docs not say anything, about .millers not holding wheat, hut ho, pointblank says the people themselves are responsible for the high prices. They have unwittingly created a scarcity by an uniform act of stocking ahead; they have practically cornered the Dominion's available flour, not for purposes of profit-making, hut for fear’there might arise a shortage on account of the war. It is indeed refreshing to read this deflection from the story other millers tell. Mr Virtue instances a case in which he supposes the number of householders in the Auckland province is 50,000, and each of these lias stocked 501hs of flour ahead,which he thinks a very small average, of requirements, it means that 1,250 tons of flour arc in private houses in that province, and if the same practice is current in all other parts of the Dominion, the consumers have practically created the apparent scarcity themselves. We note. the phrased ogy; ‘ ‘ Tii c apparent'scarcity,” because that, at least circumstantially supports our view- that the millers do know the position. Among other things Mr Virtue says that before the war started a reliable English statistician stated there would’he , a world’s shortage of 76 million quarters of wheat, without taking I into account stocks’held over. A j similar shortage occurred in 1807! and in 1907, hut there was id j trouble then because consumers | did not lay in stocks ahead. Mi I Virtue’s statements are entertain-1 mg, and they arc interesting owing to their extraordinary variation from what other millers say, hut they are only suppositions and therefore we cannot regard them very seriously as an explanak -i of the rapid rise in the price of I our daily bread. We cannot help thinking that the seemingly inde-

cent haste to put up wheat prices indicates that it is not the .growers who are being considered, for they undoubtedly sold all their last season’s wheat; they could not afford to hold it; it is rather the men who, as dealers, now hold whatever stocks there are. Another utterance which lends colour to this view is, “that prices ( ■will most lilcely go down when the present crops arc harvested.’ Then it can only he stocks carried over, which were bought at last | season’s prices, that the high price ! demands arc to apply to. Again, | it is said there is no wheat in New | Zealand; if that-is so what is the j fuss about, and why is there this rush and clamour to get the Government fixture so hastily removed? There is no use blinking at the fact that members of the Flourmillers’.Association do buy what they require for the year when prices are at their lowest, and the | same applies to merchants' and f dealers. No farmer, can afford -oh j hold his wheat for a year waitin'? j for a rise of value that may never [ come. The ref or or. we must eoni dude that wheat slocks are in the i hands of the Millers’ Association; and that consequently it is the members, of that association that are responsible for the abnormal rise in the price" of bread. Anyway, it is not very fialtering to their perspicacity and business acumen to have io so publicly proclaim how woefully wide they were in the estimate of what the country would require, for, of course, they would not dispose of their purchases of New Zealand grown wheat, because of the duty there would he to pay on any they imported. New Zeland grows sufficient wheat for her own needs,and as last year’s harvest rnturned more wheat than that of the previous year, and as this year’s harvest is not likely to lie less than that of last year, there certainly | should be no shortage. There | was no shortage in 1913 with less wheat than in 1,914, so' it is difficult to understand why there should he a shortage now such as *0 , raise the staple food of our people Lr famine pricesWe urge id' at in a . country that . has for yea vs grown ,; io™ wheat lha.u it requires r or its own com' chip! ion conditions such as now exist should not be possible. AVe are not exporting what we produce, at least, the small quantity we do export i® compensated for by that' we import. The phobelm is where is the wheat? AVe look for the answer to this question to the quarter from whence comes the loudest clamours for high prices.