The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1877.

Kumara Times, Issue 200, 25 May 1877, Page 2

The Kumara Times. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1877.

Our correspondent “ Doughey,” whose reply to the “ Loafer who don’t live on returns” appeared in Wednesday’s Kumara Times, seems to speak as one having an intimate knowledge of the baking trade. He favours the public with statistics, which, as far as they prove the trade expenses here, we suppose we may take to be reliable. Thus his price for Adelaide flour at Hokitika, ',£24 10s per ton, and the freight frotn that town, £2 10s, and from Greymouth £3, may pass unchallenged, albeit he is slightly mistaken as to the cost per bag on the diggings. He gives it as £2 7sj when from his own figures it is £2 14s. This, ■ course, tells rather in favor of his argument than against it. With regard to the expenditure involved in the manufacture and distribution of loaves made from a bae of flour, his estimate is open to discussion. He estimates it at £1 18s 6d. In this estimate he includes apparently everything, except the allowance for bad debts, which, later on he states, shop-id;be considered to take “ ten per cent off the entire proceeds of a baker’s ’ business,” a percentage, which he fur-j.-ther saya-.“ is faiVless than the actual - loss in these times‘of credit;? “ Loafer ’> estimated that if a baker sends out 101 loaves;per diem,be sends ouira tbn- per week, the price of which, in the form - of b|read,. he. down, at £4?, 4s, allowing £4 £g for short weight. “ Doughey ” , very fairly puts the other • side of the case, and it is our present intention to 'consider his side without prejudice. -;,For this .purpose we will take a ton of flour as the quantity manufactured into bread per week by one establishment. This would make the expenditure for manufacturing and distributing per week £l9 ss. We will not stop to comment upon this estimate. The cost of the flour is £27, making a total of £46 ss, This quantity of flour will give, “ Doughey ’» says,. 700 loaves, which, at is ,3d each, give £43 15s, or a loss of £2 10s. To this loss must be added' the ten per cent, from the, gross proceeds for bad debts. This percentage amounts to ; £4 7s 6d, leaving the net loss, according to “ Doughey,” of £6 17s 6d per week for a business working up a ton of flour. No one can possibly complain of this excepting the business man who devotes himself to supplying bread. We are afraid, however, that “ Doughey” when he has thus proved his case, has proved too much. We have no reason to suppose that the expenditure has been increased since the rise in the price of flour. "We think we may safely assume that it has not. Let us then take “ Doughey’s” figures, and see what profit was being made by bakers when they were selling the' four •pound loaf at one shilling. The cost of a ton of flour has lately increased by £2, Then 700 loaves, formerly must have cost, by his own admission, £44 ,ss. At one Shilling per loaf the return from these would be £35. From this amount deduct the ten per cent for bad •debts £S lOe. .and the result is £3l 10s showing a lose of £l2 15s. per week. How are we to reconcile this with the | fact that the price has he.cn maintained j at a shilling for so long a time, and] •-hat even at, the present time some jbakers are continuing to sell at the

same price ? We have no desire to interfere with the rules of supply and demand. 'lf the bakers cannot afford to sell at a less price than fifteen pence, if the increase by 7£ per cent, in the cost of production necessitates the increase of the selling price by 25pper , cent, let it be so, but we must say that “(Doughey” has failed to convince us that because the bakers pay £2 more for the raw material, they are, therefore bound to charge no less than £8 15s. more for the manufactured article.