RELATED 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. 
(b) 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 Report of the Board 
of Trade on the Wheat and Flour Question—Parliamentary 
Papers, 1916, H-33. ; 
tAccording to the Report of the Board of Trade the price 
in December was 6s. 5d. per bushel. 
