The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1914. THE STATE AS BAKER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 21 March 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 1914. THE STATE AS BAKER.

Tho, other day we published an extract showing how 'the Government of New South Wales had proved that the State can make and supply bread at a much cheaper rate than competitive bakers can. This demonstration of Governmental efficiency is so unusual as to be worthy of notice. As a rule, when the State undertakes to do anything in the industrial sphere, the'result is th& production of an inferior article at a higher price to the consumer. "The New South Wales experiment with bread seems, therefore, to contradict the general experience. This doubtless is because there has been no attempt to create a Government monopoly. Tbe State simply manufactures bread fer its own victualling purposes, in competition with other bakers. It has yet to be proved that a State monopoly of bread-making would prove successful. There are municipal bakeries in Paris and other European cities, and these are apparently well managed. New Zealand, though it takes the lead in many socialistic experiments, has not yet thought fit to supply advanced principles to the supply of the necessaries of life, such as bread, beef and milk. It is very significant to find that Great Britain has made a movement towards State bread-making, and tbat a sober paper like the Statesman highly commends the experiment. At Aldershot, it seems, the War Office has installed a baking plant of the nwt .up-to-date kind, where bread is produced for the use of the soldiers. The Statesman describes the process as economic, cleanly and clever, and adds that the product is even more remarkable for its cheapness than for its admittedly .quality. According to the Hoard qf Trade Labor Gazette for December last, the price of bread throughout England, Wales and Scotland averaged C.3G pence for four lbs, tbe average for the whole of Great Britain being 5.02 pence, or as nearly as possible sixpence per 4lb loaf. The cost price of Aldershot bread during the first haif of 1912 came out at 8s 6d for 1001' os, or as nearly as possible fourpencc for the 41b loaf. The Statesman pertinently asks its readers to think of "the fuss that''has been made in the United iTOngdom during tho past ten years, about the incidence of a small com duty and its effect upon the price of bread, and contrast it with the fact that a War Office, reputed to be particularly unintelligent, can manufacture bread for itself at one-third less cost than is paid, by tho public for an inferior product." It attributes the high price of bread produced under tbe competitive system to "uneconomic manufacture, inefficiency and selfish commercialism," and of course this is tantamount to advocating State or municipal bakeries for supplying the general consumer, in this country, we believe the cost of bread could be reduced by one-third, with advantage to the baker and the public alike. The high price of bread in New Zealand is the result of the heavy cost of distribution, more than of inefficiant methods of manufacture. A dozen bakers' carts, with horses h:»1 drivers, are at present engaged in doing the work of two carts, owing to duplication and over-lapping of routes. If the municipalities were to undertake the manufacture and distribution of bread, a number of small bakeries, the owners' of which make a bare living by dint of very hard work, would be abolished and the "staff of life" would be applied to tlw public at a much lower price than at present, while the master-bakers would do better for themselves as managers of municipal bakeries and depots. Where conservative England has led the way, and the oldest colony of Australasia has successfully followed. New Zealand liftd not fear to tread. A few more turns of the "cost of living" screw, and the people will clamor ror cheaper bread.