BELATED TOPICS 267 



to wheat to control prices. The result was the establish- 

 ment of a Food Commission to enquire into the matter 

 and report on the available supplies of wheat and flour 

 in relation to the demand for these articles. The 

 advisability of fixing prices was also to receive con- 

 sideration. The Commission took the greater part of 

 a month to make its report, and in the meantime 

 flour had been selling at from 12 per ton, and wheat 

 at about 5s. 3d. per bushel; but very little wheat was 

 offering, and the millers who had bought up supplies 

 prior to August at about 3s. 6d. per bushel were now 

 taking advantage of the high prices of wheat to raise 

 the price of flour to an exorbitant figure. 



(&) The Fixation of Price. On September 29th the 

 Commission made its first report, and as a result the 

 maximum price of wheat was fixed at 4s. 9d. per bushel, 

 and flour at 11 10s. per ton*. The result was not 

 satisfactory; for prior to the proclamation fixing the 

 price, wheat had been selling at 5s. 3d. to 5s. 6d. per 

 bushel, and the price had been high for some seven or 

 eight weeks, so that millers in being forced to sell flour 

 at 11 10s. per ton were milling at a loss. The Com- 

 mission again reported, and on October 21st, prices were 

 fixed at the maximum of 5s. 3d. per bushel for wheat, and 

 flour at 13 per ton. During November and December 

 wheat was reported to have been sold by the evasion of 

 the law at prices equivalent to 6s. and 6s. 3d. per bushel ; 

 but those farmers who had supplies for the most part 

 preferred to hold them, for the Government had made 

 purchases of Canadian wheat at 6s. 3d. per bushel, t It 

 was anticipated that the first supplies from Canada 

 would reach New Zealand early in January, and the 



*In spite of this flour was selling at 12 5s. per ton in 

 September, and 13 9s. in November. See Eeport of the Board 

 of Trade on the Wheat and Flour Question Parliamentary 

 Papers, 1916, H-33. 



t According to the Eeport of the Board of Trade the price 

 in December was 6s. 5d. per bushel. 



