A BREAD PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 124, 12 February 1918, Page 9

A BREAD PROBLEM

■. . / -. • ■ ■ ; BAKERS RESTRICTED HEi EMBARGO ON AUSTRALIAN FLOUR There is quite a flutter in baking (circles throughout New Zealand at the ■present time owing to the threatened action of, the New Zealand Board of [Trade in placing- an embargo on the importation of Australian flour after [February 28. This embargo is the reSuit of the Government action of last year in purchasing large supplies of [Australian ■ wheat, which .supplies are now'coming, slowly to hand and are toeing handed on to the New Zealand 'millers at a price that will, approximately, cover the Government expense. In order, then, that the public should. an turn "pay the price," an embargo is to bo placed' on Australian flour at the end of the month. The shipments that have been coming forward lately have-not been heavy owing to the difficulty in 'gett-ingvf reight space for largo (orders,- so that local merchants state that the New Zealand market -will bo 'denuded of Australian (lour early in March, and thereafter the public will ibe -supplied -solely with Now Zealandground flour. At first glance this does riot appear to be anything in the nature of a hardship, but the principal bakers of the'city say that.it will bo found hy the public it lsr> a. very severe one, Sind confess to be considerably chagrined over the action of the Board of {Trade.

Mr. \V. H. James, who turns out- of Jiis bakery in Lower Taranaki Street nearly 10,000 loaves a week, says that as soon as the bakers are deprived of 'Australian flour there will be plenty of people to protest, for it is a well-known land generally-recognised ■ fact in -the baking tradeof the Dominion; that the bread made solely of New Zealand flour is inferior to the bread made with a Wend of' Australian and New Zealand flours. He says most emphatically that ithere is no argument on that point. In his own bakehouse he uses four ' sacks of Australian flour to one of New Zealand, and gets the result he desires. Others may use a less propor'tion, but personally he is satisfied that his blend is a good one. The two. flours were as" different as chalk froni cheese inequality. Australian wheat, as most neople knew, was hard,'- bright, an! very 'dry, whilst New Zealand-grown:, wheat was soft and damp. -Those- qualities were coutinued in the flour. The quo was that dry and free that when emptied out on a table it ran all over the place, but; the New Zealand flour was 'moist and held together.. To the touch it was like putty compared with fine, dry sand. Empty the New Zealand flour on to a table in the same manner as tho Australian, and it held up —there was no run in it. To illustrate in a practical way. the 'difference, Mr.. James baked a few loaves on Saturday of - New Zealandground flour-only j and put before,. a Dominion representative the result, and .■with it some of the loaves made with ■the usual blend. There was no doubt about the marked difference botween the two loaves. The loaves made with ithe blended flour werelight and bright in tone, and fine in texturo and springy to the touch; the loaves made with New Zealand flour were.two shades darker in colour, had the texture of a fairly coarse sponge,, and were rough and soggy to the touch. The difference .was just as apparent, in. the .taste. ■ "If,don't know how we're going to pet on without Australian flour," said Mr. James ,in conclusion.. "The public will see. the difference at once, and will complain from cue end of New Zealand to the other 1" He also intends, to bake loaves of the iblend, and the New Zealand flour only, for presentation to the Prime Minister and Minister, of Supplies.. Mr. James added *that the-bread made, with the hlend lasted three times .as long as the other, which quickly developed a hard crust' on exposure.

Mr: W.-A. Kcllow, managiiig.director of the Wellington Automatic Bakeries, said that lie could heartily endorse all that Mr. James had suid. To make good tread they must have tho 'Australian flour, and the public would soon find that, out after the wnbargo was put into force arid tliey ,\.ere compelled to use New Zealand ilour.ciily. As a matter of fact, Mr. Kellow ado. Ed, New. Zealand is not producing enough wheat to keep her own popula-tion'-going, so wo have to havo--Austra-lian flour, and why they should have, to he deprived of it in order to keep a few mills going in the south with v,heat the Government paid so much for was Leyond comprehension. . .

■'■■■ It was pointed;Out-to the bakers that there was'one.(law.hi their argument, and that was that if-the New Zealand miliers were engaged in grinding Australian wheat they- were -necessarily turning out-Australian fiour, hut"this was met-with the-statement that the Now Zealand mills -were different' from the Australian mills. There pas, too,

..the...possibility that, the wheat being received from Australia was being mix-' ed-with Now Zealand, and that the product was not anything like tho Australian flour imported into this country. A strong effort is to bo mado to persuade the Government not to placo the proposed embargo on Australian flour, as it is necessary to tho making of good bread. BOARD OF TRADE'S REPLY BAKEItS , FEARS NOT WELL FOUNDED. The Board of Trade docs not believo that the fears expressed by the l-akera are well founded. The embargo on Australian flour after tho end of this month will not prevent the bakers getting flour milled in New Zealand from the Australian wheat purchased by the Government. 'This-flour, tho members of the board- contend, is suitable for mixiii" witli flour made from N'ew Zealand wheat, and thorn need be i.o deterioration, at all in the quality or tho Mr Hart, one of the members of the board, said in reply to a question on the subject that the embargo on die importation of Australian flour a-wi February 28 was necessary ewing to the fact that the Government \\*A guaranteed the New Zealand farmers or. 10d. a bushel for the. new season s croi) The Government must I'uy we wheat or see the farmers got !V.e pi ice promised them, and it had also that the millers should have a suj - pft of- Australian *heat We p.obab,ty was that there would, be nMirplus Now £" land independent of outside ™ plies of wheat, and the necessity "Son in that di.ecUon was realiscd by-anybody who oonsidcre ha the position woud have.been ili Wβ ,„■ no wheat had \mn gio\» [a( f [[ \- The Dominion could not depend on Australia for wheat awl flour, oh ing and. Australian wheat and flour «m •Rtill coming to New Zealand, lue .;Sn&« flour imported in the period January 26 to February 2, tor example, -Ss 205,235 centals. The Government nd the board had encouraged th*importation of Hour. Durmg th month of February there would be at least 7000 tons of Australian wheat, part of the Government's purchase coming to New Zealand, and tins would bt available, for mixing during March and to the quality of the loaf made-from. New Zealand flour. Mi. Hart said that in an ordinary season lha locally-grown wheat produced flour as good as any. When the season had been wet, the New Zealand flour required to be mixed, with the dryer Australian Hour, but it was a fact that many bakers said they could make a hetter loaf without any Australian flour at all. It should bo remembered that, it was only in recent years that Australian flour had been used largely in this country. Thuie had been a time when New Zealand exported wheat in-considerable quantities A Vwme.ton ■ baiter had stated that the loaf made from New Zealand flour was dark in colour. There were differences ot opinion on that point. The sole complaint made by the Dunedin bakers-re-garding the flour made from the Government's Australian wheat was that the bread was dark in colour. The same complaint had come from Auckland! Mr. Hart mado reference also to the | importance of the wheat offal to> ftew Zealand. There were about 8001b. of bran and sharps to every ton of flour, and in the case of Aiistiaha-n Hour th'is offal remained in the Common-wealth..-Thus-the. importation of Australian Hour accentuated the trouble caused in New Zealand among poultryfarmers and others by the shortage of offal.- ' ■■