Meanwhile the Ministry of Agriculture's list of scheduled imports, combined
with the 15 per cent. quota of_ British wheat in the loaf, is going to send food -prices. up. It is no use being merely doctrinaire about food-taxes. Cocoa and sugar have been taxed for enough years to make the idea familiar enough, and the fruits and vegetables subjected- to new taxation are mainly luxuries that can quite well be dispensed with. New pOtatoeS are the most doubtful item, for the term needs definition, and taxes on potatoes that have passed their first youth and ceased to ..be luxuries are open to the strongest objection, for potatoes are a staple food of the poor. So is bread, which will unquestionably become dearer as a result of .the British wheat quota. How the quota will work remains to' be explained. No doubt the folly Of railing inland wheat long distances to port mills will be avoided, but millm seem agreed that the result of the enforced blend will be an inferior flour. They arc consequently pressing for a tariff on foreign—and Dominion—flour, which would otherwise compete unfairly with British. From another point of view it is doubtful policy to start encouraging wheat when what we want most is more pigs and more poultry. A balanced agri_ cultural policy needs to be worked out as a whole, and Sir John Gihnour, recognizing that, has wisely refused to commit himself further till after the adjournment.*
