BREAD GOING UP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 15 December 1914, Page 4

BREAD GOING UP.

BAKERS SHORT OF FLOUR, (HOLDERS OF FLOUR REFUSE TO SELL. EXCEPT AT ADVANCED PRICES. By Telegraph. —Per Press Association. Wellington, Last Xiglit. "The price, of bread will be advanced in Wellington within a month from now," said Mr. A. Lavcrn, president of the Wellington Master Bakers' Association, when asked to-day for the position in which the bakers now find themselves. The. present price of bread is 4d. per 21b. loaf. Shortly after the New Year this will bo advanced to 4'/ 2 d., and there is no saying how soon after that the next advance will be, for the bakers of Wellington, who have used up their stocks of flour, find it impossible to buy more. They are met by a point-blank refusal from-the millers, and what little they can scrape together to supply' their customers for a few days at a time is being sold to them at a price which makes it imperative that an advance should be made in the price. A few months ago the Government fixed the price of flour by proclamation at £l3 per ton, f.0.1i., but that proclamation has been rendered useless from the point of view of the smaller bakers, because a way has been discovered by holders of stocks to evade the law. There is nothing to say that a man who hohjs flour in stock cannot sell it from the store at above £l3. Advantage has been taken of this to demand higher prices from the bakers, some of whom for the past month have been paying £l4 las and £ls per ton for small supplies ex store. One baker stated his case definitely. ] "Thrqe weeks ago I applied in person to a firm from whom I have dealt regularly for five and a half years. I was told that they had no flour to sell. After some argument they admitted to me that they would sell a small quantity, providing I ; reckoned it ex store. The price would be £l4 15s, or £l4 lfis delivered to my hake-house. I was absolutely out of flour, and would have had to shut my bakery up in two days if I had not accepted that offer. At that rate I cannot sell bread at '4d. per 21b, loaf; 4'/i>d. would leave me a profit which is much below that of normal times. 1 and other bakers are just waiting for an advance in price before we put our businesses even on a normal basis." The position appears to be rapidly becoming acute. Some bakers in a fairly large way of business have been able, through strong finance, to secure themselves by laying in a sufficient stock of flour until tho new season's wheat is ready, but the majority of the bakers have been unable to find money enough to do this. (The Master Bakers' Association has been urged by some of its members to raise the price of bread at once, but the secretary of the Association (Mr. Clegg) stated yesterday that they had refrained from adopting this course because of the nearness of Christmas, but the rise will come very shortly after the New Year, and it seems very clearly tho opinion of many of the bakers that the increase to 4y s d. per 21b. loaf must be followed by a further rise unless something happens to give them stocks of flour at a more reasonable price. , Tho importation of Canadian wheat and flour will not, according to Mr. Raven, make the price of bread cheaper. The Government would have to sell the imported article at a loss to reach the official price at present ruling in New Zealand. Therefore, the lmkers would 1 secure no advantage from the importa--1 tion, and would not be able to lower the • price to customers.