Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1907.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43100, 4 June 1907, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1907.

This above all —to thine own self be true , And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The rise in the price of flour has, as our readers will have noted, been followed in several centres by a rise in the price of bread, and this has given occasion for much dissatisfaction on the part of the consumer. In Wellington there is a particular outcry because the bakers have raised the four-pound loaf to 7d, while the Dunedin bakers have been satisfied to raise it to 6|d. If the latter price is sufficient to cover the rise in flour and it is pretty obvious that it is more than sufficient, the Wellington bakers are seeking to make an unfair profit out of the movement of the flour market. They are not, of course, willing to admit such a charge, and some of them have been making a defence of their action which is at least amusing. One of them was indignant at the fuss which the public were making. “ Why do people make all this ado about a extra halfpenny on a loaf of bread ?” he asked. “ They don’t make the same fuss when meat goes up, or eggs, or butter. We have no monopoly. We increased the price because the millers increased the price of our flour. And the price of flour was increased because farmers are holding back their wheat. It is the farmers who are to blame. At the conference at Timaru the millers told me the farmers were holding large quantities of wheat, refusing to sell till they had forced up the price. It is the farmers who have the monopoly. Yet they are subsidised. They are subsidised by means of the steamer subsidies, and the protective import duties.” Here is the bakers’ case in a nutshell. The rise in the price of flour, of course, curtails their profits, but it is still to be proven that it does so to the extent of Id or even £d on the loaf. The gentleman who made this statement of the bakers’ case gives the following further particulars of the trade profits. As these affect the most important article of food, the public has an interest in them. “ A ton of flour, costing £9 15s, will make 1,350 two-pound loaves,” he. says, “ which, at 3£d, will sell for £l9 13s 9d. A baker with an average large business will turn out five tons a week, which he will sell at a margin of less than £SO over the cost of the flour, The week’s wages are about £22, the firing £3, rent about £4, besides the keep of six horses, the wear and tear, etc. After all this has been paid for, the baker has the balance as a reward for his own labour aDd that of his wife and family, who assist, and also to meet interest on his capital, loss through mishaps, which, in a business so dependent on the weather as breadmaking is, are very heavy. The men who suffer most when bread is too cheap are the small men, who use a ton or less of flour per week. We think the figures prove rather too much. It is still pretty clear that the rise in the price of the loaf is disproportionate to the rise in the price of flour. Undoubtedly the price of wheat has gone up. Whether it is due to the drought in Australia or bad harvests in Russia, or the increased demand in the East, or the shortage in America, the result is the same. And it is equally true that the price of bread is conditioned by the price of flour. Some of the bakers would be glad to have the price fixed by law. The one already quoted is of that opinion. He says that “ it was done in Germany when I was a boy, fifty years ago. Prices of bread, and meat were fixed weekly by Government officers, and notified in the “ Gazette.” The New Zealand Government should fix the price of wheat, of flour, and of bread ; and if this was done on a fair basis, you would find that the bakers would be allowed bigger profits than they make now. I mentioned the subject to the late Mr Seddon two years ago.” Mr Seddon, as]we know, was of opinion that some such step should be taken.

It is news to find that the master bakers would be willing to accept such an arrangement. —Hawke’s Bay Herald.