THE PRICE OF BREAD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 156, 21 March 1918, Page 4

THE PRICE OF BREAD

The Government in attempting to deal with the problem of the wheat supply must.have gathered a vory fair impression of what is meant by the familiar Baying: Between the Devil and the deep sea. It is anxious to encourage the farmers to grow wheat, and to do this it has to fix a price which will, under average' conditions, ensure the farmers a reasonable projit. It is equally anxious to satisfy public opinion in the direction of keeping down the cost of.living. Unhappily under existing conditions the two purposes in view are bound to conflict. To induce the farmer to grow wheat when he can moreprofitably turn his land to other, and less risky uses, it is necessary to raiso the price fixed for wheat. And to raise the price of wheat ordinarily means the raising of the price of flour and the price of bread. The Government has now agreed to raise the prico which may be charged for wheat from an average of about 6s. 10d. a bushel, the previous prico fixod, to 6s. a bushel. Recently it permitted the millers to increase the- charge for flour from £15 to £15 10s. a ton. Now it issues a proclamation preventing any increase in the price of bread aboyo the prico at which it was sold in different parts of the Dominion on the fourth of the present month. We therefore havo this peculiar _ position : the farmers are to receive an increase of something like 2d. per bushel for their wheat; prior to tnis increase being granted the millers who buy tho farmers' wheat were authorised to charge an extra 10s. a ton for their flour, but the bakers are to bo compelled to sell their bread to the public at the same price at which they sold it prior to tho rise in the prices of wheat and flour. The prico of bread varies in different parts of tho Dominion, ranging from 4d. to sld. the two-pound loaf. In the four chief centres the prices at the boginning of the presont month were:

Auckland sd. Wellington 5Jd. Christcnurch 43d. Dunedin id. Flour is dearer in Wellington than in the. other centres, the wholesale prices quoted in the- last abstract of statistics issued by the Government Statistician being: Auckland, £15 6s. a ton; Wellington, £16 2s. lid.; Christchurch, £14 7s. 10d.; Duncdin, £14 lls. 3d. These were tho January prices of this year. A few days ago bakers in Auckland and Wellington expressed the opinion that it would be necessary when tho prico of flour was raised to £15 10s. f.o.b. to increase the price of bi'ead, the price mentioned for Wellington being 6d. the two-pound loaf. This increase will not now be permissible under tho proclamation which appears in the Gazette issued yesterday. The bakers claim that they have boon working on a very narrow margin of profit under tho old prices, and that they will be hardly used if they are forced to continuo to sell at those prices while tho cost of ilour is increased. This may be so in somo instances, but if tho figures published by the Government Statistician are to bo accepted as being approximately correct;, there would scorn to bo a fair margin of profit in some centres, or else those in other parts are selling at a loss. Here, for instance, arc some samples: Price of Prico of Hour. 21b. loaf. .6 s. (I. (I. Dunedin U 11 .1 4 Christ-church .... 14 7 10 13 Oiunaru U 5 5 5 ■ Tiniani 14 3 7 iij Hero we have the bakers of Dimedin paying more for their flour per ton than is paid in tho other towns mentioned, and charging less for their bread; while the bakers of the town which pays least for (lour charge most for their bread. The price of ilour in fnvorcargil] is quoted at' :Sls 2s. lid. a ton, and tho two-pound loaf is sold at did., as against the 5.U1. charged .in Timaru, where flour is nearly £l a ton cheaper. There may be some explanation for these striking differences— thcro certainly is need for explanation.. Tho bakers of Wellington are worse off than those in

other large centres in the matter of the price they pay for their flour, but bread is cheaper in Palmerston North and Masterton and other country towns in the North Island than it is in Wellington, and the country bakers in this province presumably in most cases pay as much for their flour as the Wellington City bakers.