DUMPING OF WHEAT AND FLOUR INTO NEW ZEALAND.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 4 March 1927, Page 5

DUMPING OF WHEAT AND FLOUR INTO NEW ZEALAND.

To the Editor of the “Timaru Herald. Sir,—The following is taken from the “Australian,” January 22, 1927: “At present the official quotation for old flour for home consumption is £l4 10s, and for new flour £l3 10s per ton, but it is understood that very little flour is being sold above the lower figure. Export sales have been made at £ll os per ton. . It is recognised that flour for shipment overseas can be sold at concession rates, because charges involved in distribution within the State are not incurred for parcels for export.” . It is fortunate for millers here that New Zealand decided not to apply a dumping duty to contracts entered into before January 27, and yet tot bo completed, for a large quantity of flour has been sold down to £ll _ a ton, compared with £l3 a ton, which was then the ruling price for flour for consumption in Victoria. Many New Zealand millers and bakers have been taking advantage of the opportunity to buy cheap flour. The following quotation from the “Timaru Herald” of January 20, gives an abstract of statistics for the past five years, covering the first eleven monllis of each year. That period is taken because the figures for the whole cf 1926 were not then available, the amount of flour imported to each pejiod was as follows: Centals.

1922 .mi ••• »•* ® 1923 ... ... ... 33 1924 .r. 23 1925 ... 154,074 I 1926 ... 518,514 The fact is that the amount. of flour imported by New Zealand during the first eleven months of 1926 was more than the total quantity bro'ught into tho country during the corresponding periods, of the past ten .years. Five years ago in the course of eleven months we imported' flour valued at £B. In eleven months last year the value cf the imports reached £407,517. When the value of the flour imported more than trebles in the course of a year it indicates plainly enough a shortage of wheat grown in New Zealand. It was playing into the hands of the Auckland people, who are not wheat growers, for our Government not to apply a dumping duty to contracts entered into before January 27 of this year, yet to be completed, for at present there are some hundreds of tons of Australian flour and thousands of bushels of foreign-grown wheat being imported into New Zealand. Many of these contracts have yet to bo delivered, although our New Zealand farmers are offering splendid samples of wheat to millers, many of whom are already supplied with Australian flour, and conseauently will only buy New Zealand wheat at a much reduced

price. It is a very short-sighted policy for millers and bakers to be importing wheat and flour when our own farmers can this year supply all demands. Several flour-mill owners have shut their machinery down for months past, i and have been, and are supplying their baker customers with cheap Australian flour. The ultimate result will be that farmers will be compelled to stop wheat growing and go into sheep business. i This state of things is not only against the interests of our farmers, but affects the whole community of New Zealand, for we all have mere or less to depend upon the produce of our New Zealand soil for a living. y 1 The Government are much to blame i for allowing cheap Australian wheat i and flour to be dumped into New Zealand, as .is being done at the present time, while locally grown wheat, { saved in good milling conditiop, is' procurable at a reasonable price. 1 Millers and bakers who are at pre-

sent obtaining their flour from Australia because they may save a few shillings a ton profit on their purchases, appear to forget that every .bushel of wneat, cr ton of flour, imported into New Zealand at present means so much more unemployment for our working men. I, as representing a milling firm, have been dealing in wheat and colonial produce for over half a century; I am also connected with farm, and farm expenses, and can say that 69 per bushel f.o.b. should be about the ruling price tci-day for good sound milling wheat, in order to leave the farmer a fair living profit for his work, as everything a farmer requires in the shape of land, horses, machinery, threshing, etc., is much more expensive than it was before the war.

I have no hesitation in saying that the large amount of foreign wheat and flour coming into New Zealand will be more than enough to supply New Zealand’s demands at least to the. end of next month, quite clear of all' New Zealand supply. This will mean a much reduced output for our New Zealand mills, a reduced expending power for the population of our towns, and a big reduction in railway and shipping charges, etc. If farmers refuse to grow wheat, we would be entirely dependent on Australia, as we were before the war years, when a drought came over Australia, and my company, nnder Mr Massey’s Government, obtained that season all our milling wheat from America, at correspondingly high prices. Last year people were allowed to import fowl wheat free of duty. Ihold that foreign-grown wheat, even for fowls, should not be required in New Zealand, if sufficient wheat is grown. Up to the end of last century, ■ I never heard of a case where fowl wheat was imported to tho South Island. A small shipment might have reached Auckland. I may further mention that it appears that before any alteration is made in the Government’s former arrangements in tariff matters, six months’ notice must be given. lam therefore, wonde.ring if the people who bought Australian flour wholesale at £ll per ton, or less, up to January 27 last, will be allowed six months’ delivery. If so, we may expect to see Australian flour coming mup ko next July. It may pay certain mill-owners and their friends to still keep their machinery shut down, while they supply cheap Australian flenr, as they have been doing. Such action would tend to keep the price of New Zealand-grown wheat below 6s per bushel for the rest of the year I am, etc., Wm. EVANS.