PRICE OF FLOUR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2585, 6 October 1915, Page 2

PRICE OF FLOUR

Tile price of flour in :tho south to-day is variously quoted', at:,.£l2 10s. tuid ,£l3 f.0.b., less . usual 21 jier ceut. discount, and it has been suggested -that shrewd buyers could land it m Wellington at those prices. This is a heavy reduction on the price charged some six months ago, when flour soared up to -.£l7 10s. per ton. ' When it was at the latter price the public had to pay sd. for the 2lb. loaf, .and when it dropped to ,£ls the price fell, to 4-Jd. per loaf. It is now for the local bakers to decide whether 4Jd. per loaf is not too much to ask with flour quoted at .£l2 103.

Mr. A. Raven, the president of the Wellington Master . Bakers' Association, when communicated with on the matter said that the ordinary monthly meeting of master bakers was to' be held tomorrow, but ho could not say whether any further drop in the price of bread would be decided upon. When flour stood at ,£9 per ton the price of breaA was 3Sd. per 21b. loaf, when it rose to ,£lO the pricc of bread was raised to 4d., and' that price was retained when' flour rose, to JU2 per ton, so that if it fell to .£l2, the price of bread would probably drop to 4d., but so-far flour had not been quoted to him at ,£l2 10s.

That'the position has its difficulties was pointed out by a flour merchant who exhibited <1 letter from his millers in tlio south, stating that ho (the merchant) still had to receive 69 tons of flour ,at ,£l7 per ton, yet with the market price down to at least per ton he could not realise more than that figure for the flour. That was all in the game, but it showed that a drop in the price was not immediately beneficial to those bakers who had stocks of flour bought at the higher rates to work off, before they could find room for supplies at the presentday price. i .