The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 27. THE PRICE OF BREAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 66, 27 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JUNE 27. THE PRICE OF BREAD.

Curiousdy enough, the average person bases bis idea of the difficulties of existence on the prioe of bread. Man does not live by bread alone, ibut lie affects to think so. No subject makes him so flghtable as a rise in the price of the two-tpound loaf. Although he will cheerfully spend,-in half an hour, enough money to buy breau for a week, he fights at the idea of a baker's bill being sixpence heavier than usual. The baker mentions that Hour is dear, that he ha* to pay high wages, that he has to deliver the bread, that he has to keep breadcarters, horses, and so on; that he has to traverse .perhaps half a mile to be met by. 'Wo bread to-day, thank you,' and so on. He argues, with perfect justice, that articles, apparently more payable than .bread, are not deliverec, that people do not grumble at a rise ia the prices asked for them, that the seller of these articles lives a less strenuous life, and that altogether the baker is by no means a favored person. If the baker does not make a fair living by baking and hawking bread, he is a philanthropist. If he does not wish to be a, philanthropist, he ought to quit baking and sink his capital into a business that will return .him a better dividend. Although, in a town like New Plymouth, a ■ rise of one halfpenny per loaf will neither break nor make the bread consumer, the (bread consumer is entitled to look at the question from the point of view of comparison. It does not matter to the baker how much .profit the grocer or the ironmonger makes. The ironmonger may make 150 per cent, profit and the grocer 5 per cent. The baker is not concerned 'by comparisons. If he believes that the grocer is on a better wicket, 'he should become a grocer. If he is assured that the ironmonger is becoming a millionaire, he also might become a millionaire by investing bis money in ironmongery. In the first place, the Jaw does not compel men and women to uuy bread. If the people are dissatisfied with the price of bread they can, of course, make their own bread. If flour falls in .price and bread remains at the old figure, what is simpler than for the community to bake its own daily loaf? If flour is one price all over New Zealand and bread is 3y 2 d in one town and 4d in another, why should not the fourpenny customer mention it? Can it be shown that it is more difficult to obtain flour, make bread and deliver it in New Plymouth than in" other places in New Zealand? Is there.any special detriment to the makers of loaves in this town that the makers of bread elsewhere do not contend with? Countless millions of folks in the woiild have never heard of bread. 'lt is a fetish that bread is the staff of life and that if the usual cart did not trundle round to one's gate every day, the people behind the gate would starve. It is perfectly right for'bakers to seizo ! cn this .imaginative position, to st"" 1 ' " 'leir troughs and assert that wh ■(",tr fall there may be in the price of flour, there shall be no fall in the .price of bread. It is impossible to determine why various bakers become rich. It is reasonable that they buy houses and land, shares, stocks and other thingt from the profits they make from bread. If there is no profit, there should be no old-established bakeries. If there were no bakeries there would be home-made bread. The 'baker is a convenience, not a necessity. If he ceased baking to-day because the people refused to pay his price there would be plenty of bread in the homes of the people to-morrow. The art of home-baking would revive. At present it only sleeps. It does not matter to the average house-father or the house-wife what is the price of sugar or raisins or anything else. It does not ruin the buyer to pay a halfpenny extra for a commodity. His point is that he hates to be dictated to by any combination of tradesmen, who, by their action, aver that they are indispensable to the buyer. A while ago there was a strike of bakers' operatives in Wellington. The men believed' they were going to starve the city! The master bakers—who had repeatedly averred that there was no profit in their trade—turned to, and baked themselves, not because they did not desire the people to starve, but because they did not desire to lose trade. The idea that any kind of tradesmen is indispensable to the people is absurd. In many towns the tradesmen really assume that they are doing the public a favor by allowing people to buy the things they Sell. As. a matter of fact, most trades are by no means essential, and are kept in existence by the will of the people. In some savage countries the people become offended with tradesmen and refuse to buy from . them. China, which has had bakers' shops for five thousand years, is one of these countries. The price of bread never remains at an exorbitant altitude when the people of China take it into their heads to live on pumpkin until the price falls.

rates from 4s to 4s Cd per ton. Two or three yea'rs ago the charges stood at 2s. Tka increase is a serious item to all the coastal ports, weighted as they are with the ordinary coastal freight charges. Probably the Wellington Harbor Board cannot do without the extra revenue. Its policy in recent years has been one of fearful extravagance, with the inevitable result that its finances are now ra a somewhat straitened condition, still, that is no reason why the coastal places should be penalised. The Wellington Board, however, is foolish. By increasing the charges it is simply killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The coastal places are not going to be bled in the manner they are when they possess the power to combine and arrange with the Home vessels to tranship cargo at another port, say, Nelson or Lyttelton. New Plymouth would be even more convenient for the whole of the coastal ports between, and including, Foxton and Raglan, and the west coast of the other island. But, of course, we have not yet the required accommodation. It will, however, only be a matter of a year or so when we will, and then the whole of the coast will be quite independent of Wellington, with its excessive charges. New Plymouth is the nearest port toj Australia, and, .unlike Auckland, Wellington or any other port, is beset with no difficulties or dangers of navigation. By calling at New Plymouth and leaving the mails here, it would represent, with the Stratford-Ongarue line completed, a saving of several hours to nearly the whole of the people of the Dominion in the receiving of their oversea correspondence, and this is a consideration that must seriously weigh with the authorities in the near future. One thing is certain, and that is New Plymouth was not a m'oment too soon in embarking upon its scheme of harbor improvements, the completion of which will make it quite independent, in the matter of oversea ocean trade, of Wellington, or any of the other large ports, and give it am unrivalled position, charges and everything else considered, m a transhipment centre for the west coasts of both islands.

BIRTHDAY HONORS. The King is not personally aware of the qualifications of those he honors with titular distinctions. Especially in the case of colonial gentlemen must the suggestion of their worthiness come from the State they serve. The recommendations, therefore, that have resulted in the honoring of Sir William Hall-Jones and Sir. Charles Bowen, necessarily emanated from New Zealand. It has already been said, with some jealousy, 1 that there are distinguished servants of the State in this country who deserved honor more fully. Necessarily, in an ultra-democratic country, titular distinction is much more precious than elsewhere, and disappointment the more poignant. Sir William Sail-Jones is highly worthy of the distinction conferred on him. The remarkable feature about the new knight is that he himself has never striven for the place. All the honors he ever received have been thrust upon him; he never claimed superiority of intellect, greatness of ministrative talent, or political brilliance of any kind. He merely had his ideals, was unswervingly loyal to them, and worked too hard. He did not desire to go into the Ministry, but when the honor was thrust upon him, he did his duty with absolute conscientiousness. He became Premier by the accident of Mr. Seddon's death, but his loyalty and thorough rectitude made him at once vacate the position when Sir Joseph Ward returned to New Zealand. As an example of a colonial celebrity of whom none > can say an ill word, Sir William Hall-Jones is deserving of the honor the I King ilias done the State he serves. The j new knight has lost his health in the service of the State, and his qualities are recognised. Sir Chas. C. Bowen is one of the most distinguished men dn Australasia, and to him New Zealand owes a greater debt than can ever be 1 repaid in titular distinction. A man of high (intellect and education, his record of achievement covers fifty years of strenuous New Zealand life. He helped to found Canterbury, was a resident magistrate for ten years, was Minister of Justice in the Vogel Ministry, but, desiring to hold no "office except by the will of the people, he resigned and won a seat in the House of Representatives. He was subsequently in the Cabinet of three governments, and is now Speaker of the Upper House. But his finest achievement is the national system of education, and for its institution he deserves the affectionate regard of every New Zealander. In the matter of intellectual accomplishment it is impossible to compare Sir W., Hall-Jones and Sir Chas. Bowen, but if titles are given for personal worth, and splendid service, the King has made no mistake.

PARLIAMENT. "The finest 'gentlemen's club in New .Zealand" opens to-morrow, and as there'is a new Governor to open it, it is possible that something extra special in the way of spectacle will he provided. Members of Parliament are prouder of Parliament than the people frequently are of the members, but the reason is not always apparent. A perusal of the Parliamentary debates for any session will at once lead the reader to the conclusion that their utility is not phenomenal. The Governor, in his Speech from the Throne, reiterates the news items of importance that have been passing through all the newspapers since the last session of Parliament. The Speech assumes that the art of news dissemination is in its infancy. His Excellency becomes a sort of glorified town crier, and thereaiter all members of Parliament drearily batten on the stale news, generally using up many thousands of pounds' worth of time in dissertations that do not matter. A small board of men could make j all the useless remarks necessary in this connection, but dear old precedents have to be observed. Parliament does not assemble with the idea of at once tackling problems that face it. As a general habit it drones along in a soporific manner until it is suggested that Parliament will have to close in time for members to get away to a southern race meeting, or a northern trip, or something equally valuable. Then everybody talks about' "legislation by exhaustion," the foetid j atmosphere of the House, the waste of time, and what a crime it is to keep a hard working member from his station, his shop or his counting-house. The member of Parliament has a considerate employer. The people do not insist on a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, and are apparently satisfied if a member talks a few unnecessary columns into; Hansard (particularly if he has spoken locally, and not nationally or imperially). Debates are sometimes beautiful, illuminating and effective. Many magnificent reforms have been won by oratory. Cast' your eye through the pages of last session's Hansard and note the oratory.; Assess the value of the work actually done during the session, as compared to t the real work performed during the va-'< cation by the departments. Then find out, if possible, that even though Par-

liament did not sit to-morrow and waste much time during the next mohtn or two, whether seedtime and harvest would continue, whether the cows would dry up, or the wool cease to grow. In Australasia, an enormous number or paid politicians are npparently necessary. More than four-fifths of the time of all these politicians is taken up in saving things that need not 'be said. The value of Parliament is in its deeds, not in its words. Parliaments do not believe this. A year or two ago, the Western Aus-

tralian Parliament drowsed along, andi spoke thousands of words. The reporters | were not properly accommodated. Many! of them ''went sick" as a result. So the Press gallery men struck. Parliament prorogued the next day. It is obvious by this example that limelight is the liifeblood of many politicians. Parliament is the business house of the State. Members meet there ostensibly to do the work for which they are paid. If a batch of clerks attended the office of their merchant employer and spent three parts of the day in' discussin'g the business of last year, and the remainder of the day in adding up the ledgers, the merchant would be angry. The people of New Zealand may some day tell the much too large Parliament to cut out most of the preliminary frill and insensate chatter about nothing in particular, and to "get on with the Estimates" and things that really matter.