THE PRICE OF BREAD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 152, 22 March 1919, Page 8

THE PRICE OF BREAD

Sir,—The question of the price of bakers' bread is vexing the Hon. Ml'. AlaclJonald and his Board of Trade, and I wonder if ho and they know that, the number of four-pound loaves usually obtained from a ton of flour is just about (iiO, which, at .£ls per ton, less lliKxiunt and piiift duliv&ry charges, works out at almut iivepence halfpenny per loaf. ' 1

Like Martha of old, the honourable gentleman is "troubled about many things," amongst them being the price of suit and potatoes required in tho production of the loaf. The former is, of course, infinitesimal, and the latter make weight and may help to increase the, number of loaves to the ton. The Minister need not therefore bo distressed at the master bakers' threat to shut up shop if the price is not. increased to a .shilling tier loaf, as housewives, if they are. compelled to bake their own bread, as did their grandmothers, wi# bo able to supply the family wants, with little, effort, at sixpence per ioaf instead of elevenpence,'tlio difference of fivcpence being the post-war cost of manufacture and delivery. It is well the consumers should know that tho increase in operative bakers' and vaninen's wages, sanctioned by our Arbitration Court during tho progress of the war, has just about doubled the cost of manufacture and delivery of the 41b. loaf.

Our millers, too, have been champing on the bit, and, like Oliver Twist asking for more, but with bran and pollard at double pre-war prices and wheat at 6s. 4d. per bushel, they ore well enough paid tor their services with flour at .£ls per ton, and Cabinet otight not to sanction any encroachment upon the Con-

solidated Vuiul to lessen the price of either bread or flour.

fn pre-war times the cost of flour per ton was forty-eight times the price of a bushel of wheat, and with the added profit of twenty to thirty shillings per ton for bran and jjoUard they ought to be content.

Now that the war is over both millers and bakers should he thrown upon their own resources and permitted to work out their own destiny the same as any other trader. The general impression is that both are rather too much for our Cabinet Ministers.—l am, etc., ONLOOKER. •