THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1908. THE FREE FLOUR QUESTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9170, 19 August 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1908. THE FREE FLOUR QUESTION.

The efforts of the member for Masterton to induce th<3 Government to take the duty off Hour have not so far proved successful, and as the country is doing very well as it is, there is reason to hope that Parliament will not indulge in a financial experiment which might do an infinity of harm. Free flour, which it is suggested means cheap bread, sounds very nice indeed, but, as we knovy, "things are not always what they seem." The price of any commodity is regulated according to the lav/ of supply and demand. It is impossible to regulate the price of any article generally consumed unless it is possible to regulate numerous circumstances affecting the supply and creating the demand; it would, also, be necessary to know the events of the future in[order to ensure anything like accurate regulation. However, up to the present man has not succeeded in acquiring an absolute

knowledge of future events, and his outlook in this direction is not hopeful. It is a peculiar fact, and known to anyone who has any knowledge of the history of the repeal of the Corn Laws movement, that, for a number of years, taxation did not affect the price of wheat. In the end, owing to certain national aspirations which the Old Country set up for herself, the price of wheat was much affected, but neither the removal, nor the imposition of taxation brought a cheap loaf to the people of England, and, after all, is bread cheap at Home to-day? When one takes into consideration the fact that there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in a state of destitution in the Old Country, the question may fairly be asked whether the bread that they purchase is cheap. Mr J. Chamberlain has, of ourse, drawn world-wide attention to tne cheap Jo&f fallacy. To revere, however, to the position in Now Zetland it is argued against the proposal tn abolish the duty on flour that it would moan the shutting down of all dour mill:!, thus throwing a large number of men out of employment There would certainly be a large decrease in the quantity of wiieat grown, and this would tend to restrict the output of coal mines, as the milling industry is a fair consumer, without mentioning the large quantity used in threshing wheat. Many farm labourers, croppers, threshers and carriers, v\ ith numerous teams of horses, would have to go seeking for labour, as well as many of those employed in the artificial manure line, and various other allied trades. Then the railway revenue would suffer a severe shrinkage, which would have to he made up by increased rates on other goods carried. The London market is not open to New Zealand wheat growers for various reasons. New Zealand could not compete in the Home I market, and, it should also remembered, that Australian wheat land is. very cheap compared to that in this country. Then again, the Australian has further advantages over the New Zealander. The Australian railway tariff on grain is about 30 per cent. lower than ours, and, moreover, Australia can always produce flour from twenty shillings to twentyfive shillings per ton cheaper, owing to the wheat being more cheaply raised, while the by-products, bran and sharps, bring considerably more, due to the absence of green feed during the summer, autumn and winter. The abolition of the duty on flour is, as we have said, a nroposal that sounds very nice—it is very democratic and all that sort of thing, but it is, at the same time, a proposition that the most able men in Parliament regard wi£h serious doubt as to its beneficial character, as the reception accorded by the Government to the Bill in question is ample proof.