BREAD OR BOARD?

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 72, 22 September 1930, Page 10

BREAD OR BOARD?

AUSTRALIAN PRICES

A CONTROL COMPLEX

BUTTEB, SUGAE, WA3ES

Complaint has been made to tli» Labour Premier of Victoria, Mr. Hogan, that the price of bread is too high. Ha will not adopt the former revolution* aiy expedient of hanging a baker, but lie threatens to appoint a Food Control Board. Those who have not bread will have board. PROFITEERING. "I have no hesitation in saying that with wheat at 3s 4d a bushel the sate of bread at Is Id or Is, or even 9d a 41b loaf is profiteering which is unjustified and unwarranted,'' said Mr. Hogan in. replying on 3rd September to a deputation from the Housewives' Association, of which Mrs. W. Thomas is president. The deputation protested against the present price of bread, and requested the appointment. of a food control board. Mr. Hogan said that the Government had the appointment of such a board under consideration. There was necessity for the exercise of economy at the present time, but it was not possible to exercise economy", while people had to pay Is or Is Id for a loaf of bread. Mrs. Thomas said that previous deputations had approached_ the Government of the day, but the price of bread still continued to be far too high. . The organising secretary (Miss "B. Robinson) asserted that not only were supplies of flour being refused to those who attempted to sell at lower prices, but attempts were being made to stop supplies of yeast. As evidence .of this Miss Kobinson produced a letter received by a country storekeeper from a wholesale organisation. They felt that' such methods should be stopped, as they might be extended to other commodities. Till last week bread had beea sold in Kyabram at Is Id a loaf. Mr. Hogan said that profiteering in. foodstuffs was dreadful, especially at a. time when poverty and distress abounded. Wheat was lower in price than for 20 years and until last week, to hi 3 knowledge, bread was higher in price than it had ever been. He knew that Is was being charged for a 41b loaf in some country towns. The sale of bread at Is Id or Is a loaf, or even at 9d a loaf, was profiteering, and bakers should voluntarily desist from the shameful practice they were carrying on. LONDON PRICES. He would like to supply some statistics showing the price of bread in relation to the price of wheat and flour. For Victoria he quoted the following statistics:— Wheat Bread ' Year. (a bushel), (a 41b loaf). 1914-15 8/3 - 9d. 1918-19 , 4/10% 7%d. ' 1922-23 5/10 ■ 10(1. 1930 (29th Aug.) ■ 4/-, 4/1 lOd, lid. In 1914-15, owing to the failure of the wheat crops in several Australian. States, added Mr. Hogan, wheat'had to be imported from California, On 20th August of this year the price of wheat in Melbourne was from 4s to 4s Id a bushel, flour was £11 5s a ton, and bread was lOd and lid in the metropolitan area. On the same day flour was £13 15s a ton in England, and bread was being sold for B§d a loaf. The bread sold in England was made largely from Australian wheat. This could "bo transported several thousand miles, imd then its pioduct could be sold at a price below that charged in Victoria. As far as he was concerned the Government would not tolerate profiteering any longer. It was necessary that the price of bread should be reduced, and the Government would do all it could to assure the relief of the peopte from an exaction which had been pressing upon them too heavily and for too long a period. . ' "DISCIPLINARY." The subject also came up in .- the Victorian Legislative Assembly, where Mr. Hogan produced an affidavit mada by Mr. William Ballard Johnson, a baker, of Abbotsford street, North Melbourne, in which Mr. Johnson stated that because of his refusal to inereasa the price of bread from 9d to lOd.a loaf the Master Bakers'. Association had tried to- have his supplies of bread stopped. Inquiries made by Mr. Forri'stal, an officer of the Treasury, had revealed, said Mr. Hogan, that Johnson obtained his supplUs «f bread from a local' baker. To meet competition he had reduced the price of a loaf from lOd to 9d, and he had beea warned by officials .of the Master Bakers' Association that "disciplinary, action" would be taken against him, Johnson declared that ag. organiser of the northern district of the- Master Bakers' Association had offered the supplier £3 to cease supplying bread to him. Mr. Hogan added that the officers of the Master Bakers' Association met each week and fixed the price of bread.. It was an extraordinary thing that loaves made from Australian wheat were sold in London at 7Jd and Bd, while in Melbourne they cost lOd, and in some country districts Is. REACTING ON BASIC WAGE. There are other angles from which' the cost of living in Australia is approachable. As the basic wage, rises and falls with the cost of living, such cost reacts directly on. wages. And the whole scheme of import duties, export bounties, and State bonuses comes into the problem. Upon butter Australia imposes an import duty of 6d a lb (which has killed New Zealand's export of butter to Australia) and the controlling authority fixes the Australian price considerably in excess of export parity. "At the moment (writes G. Kotiertsoir in a Melbourne paper on 4th September) Australian wholesale prices are 4d a lb more than London prices. Eetail prices, however, are sometimes 6d a lb more than London shop prices. However, taking 43 as the increase due to the PatersoS plan, this represents 8d a week adde* to the basic wage. "Tho local price of sugar is 4£d a lb. Before tho war it was 2^d, and that is the price in New Zealand now. All raw materials, including sugar, are 31 ow about pre-war prices, or lower, in the markets of the world. Hence we may say that the controlling authority raises the price of sugar by 2d a lb. On the weekly allowance of SJHb this adds lid to the basic wage. We have not yet finished with sugar, however, as this enters into the cost of jam, 21b of which are allowed. If half the weight of the jam consists of sugar there is 2d a week more here. Adding these items together we find, that -the basic wage has been increased by Is 9d a week by tho operations of these two price-fixing authorities." . Wil 1 the appointment of more control boards end the problem?