The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23
Starch, Maizena, and Cornflour
Starch, Maizena, and Cornflour.
The exceedingly low price at which German starch can be imported into this colony must, for a very long time to come, prevent the manufacture being taken up to any extent in New Zealand, however abundant the raw material. So long as the German article can be imported at 2¾d. per pound, there is no available labour in the colony which would enable page 29 our manufacturers to compete. It is to be feared, therefore, that the same unsuccessful result will attend the bonus now under offer as attended those offered and never taken up in 1881, 1882, and 1883. The ease is different with cornflour and semolina, and no doubt could be so, if the experiment were tried, with maizena. The large and increasing quantities of these preparations of meal which are imported open up a field for colonial enterprise, and some superior specimens were to be seen in the Wellington Exhibition. Both cornflour and semolina are being produced better and cheaper than the imported article: and the unreasonable prejudice in favour of the imported article is being overcome. Government would be justified in fostering these industries by increasing the duty.