The Price of Bread

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 26 March 1915, Page 2

The Price of Bread

In yesterday’s issue of the Herald, it was announced than the Prime Minister had said that, if the rise in the price of bread did not cease, he would consider the advisability of establishing bakeries in each of the four centres. In our humbl6 opinion, it is just as necessary to keep the price of bread down in the smaller towns as it is in the larger ones, and in any case, the establishment of Btate Bakeries is not going to settle the question. The trouble is not with the baker, but with the miller, and steps should have been taken long ago to commandeer, if necessary, every mill in New Zealand. By doing this, the price of flour could he kept down, and the bakers, who are now working against odds, would have a chance of making bread at a reasonable price. It seems most remarkable that the Government should buy wheat in Canada at 7s 3d per bushel, sell it to the millers at 6s 9d and then allow the millers to charge their own price for flour. The Government was urged right at the beginning, of the War, to take over the industries on which the supply of breadstuffs directly depended, aaid although they have several times threatened to do so if the rise in prices did not stop. Prices have gone merrily up, and nothing has been done. Now that the millers show they care nothing for the Government, the administration has turned its attention to the bakers. Perhaps it is not too late even now to do some good, and at least the Government should try to hold prices down to the present range and they can only do that by taking a firm hold of the situation and considering the need of the consumer to be of paramount importance. Had Mr. Massey grappled courageously with this problem in the early days of- the War, he would have made for himself a name that would never have died in this country, and even now he has a chance to achieve a little distinction by doing something beside threaten.