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Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5001, 22 January 1885, Page 2

THE PEICE OF BREAD

(To the Ediior of the Evening Star.)

Sic, —Within the past fortnight several letters have appeared in your columns respecting the price of bread at the Thames. The letters all have the ; same r ring about them, and are, I believe, the products of a set of malcontents who are well known to the bakers, who apparently consider them beneath their notice, as they have not taken the trouble to reply. As a lover of fair-play, and having bad a practical experience of the business, I think it only justice to the bakers of the Thames to correct some misrepresentations . which are being made by persons calling themselves " Doughboys," but who, although they; may have carried out bread, know nothing of the theory and - practice of baking. In your issue of last evening appeared a letter in which gross misstatements are made, either wilfully or through sheer ignorance of the subject. It is there stated a ton of flour of 20C0lbs will make 850 41b loaves. This is uotrue. By practical experiment I have demonstrated that a ton of flour 200Olbs (Crown brand) will only make, at the very outside, 675 41b loaves (full weight and pro* perly cooked). Now, sir, 175 loaves in a ton of flour is a considerable difference— • nearly one-fourth. Again, the price of' flour is quoted at £10. Now, taking ' Thornton, Smith, ani Firth, of Auckland, and Wood's, of Canterbury, as fairly'V' representative, I find that the "averagV value of good ordinary flour might be taken at £11 10s per ton (inclusive of _' freight and cartage). All those who harei^ written against the bakers, seem to con* sider that there is very little expense in connection with the manufacture of bread, but let me inform you that the cost of making a ton of flour into bread and delivering the same is nearly as much as the cost of the raw : material. Come to consider wages, rent, gas, fuel, horseflesh, ' wear and tear, and ail the other sundries required in baking, you will begin to see that the bakers are not making, such rapid fortunes as some would'try to make put-.; Another well known fact.i 3 that the-, bakers of the Thames have to lie out y of' large sums of money longer than those of, .• most other towns. I would warn persons 5 ' against being deluded by taking shares in such an absurd thing as a Co operative Bakery, which is being promoted by men who have very little practical knowledge of what they talk about, and who, as I/ have showp, base their calculations on> rotten theories. I venture to affirm that if a Cooperative Bakery were started in this small town at the present time, it, ;i would be a pronounced failure. It would be a very expensive affair to work, and' would, doubtless, like some other local companies, make plenty of calls, but pay no dividends. If the price of bread should be run down, I fear the quality will deteriorate, as bakers, like all other tradesmen, are bound to make their living

out of their business. I think rocs' sensible people-on the Thames are cortented with the present price of bread and the present agitation is the butcom. of a few discontented miuds. Thanking .you for.inserting this letter, and apolo /gisinß for using so much space, I anl <fco., Pbactical.