THE BREAD QUESTION.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5005, 27 January 1885, Page 3

THE BREAD QUESTION.

(To the Editor of tbe Evening Stab.) Sib,—There have been several letters in your papar lately about.the price of bread, by " Dough-boy " and " Practical." I think they are both a little out in their calculations as to the quantity of bread . that can be got from a ton of flour. I think "Dough-boy" is too high, and 14 Practical " has got too low. 1 have heard a baker say repeatedly that a ton of good flour would give 750 41b loaves, and I will show that his estimate is nearer the mark than " Practical" is; I have known my informant to pay £25 per ton for flour, deliver a good deal of his bread three times a week a distance of twenty miles from his bakery at Is per 41b ioaf; if, as " Practical " asserts, that it takes about £11 per ton to bake and deliver bread-on the Thames, then jurely it would cost more to deliver bread twenty miles from the bakery, as horses were only able to work three days a week. Now for " Practical^ " theory. He says 675 four pound loaves is the very outside limit of a ton of flour. -Let him pay £26 for a<ton of flour, add his own estimate of £11 for baking and delivery/makes £36; 675 41b loaves, at Is per loaf, makes £33 15s, a loss of £2 5s on a ton of flour according to " Practical'B" estimate. Now take my informant's estimate: 750 loaves, at Is per loaf, makes £37 10s, and I think any man doing % good trade should be very well'paid with £12 10s a ton for baking and delivery. " Practical" asserts that the bakers on tbe Thames have to lie a long time out of their money. I think the people of the Thames are not bad pays, take them as a whole. You know, Mr Editor, that in Australia, where there is a large floating population, that business people lose a great deal more than (hey do here, that "Practical" is either in the trade, or writing on its behalf is very clear. I would ask*him if tbe profits are so small and the people, of the Thames such bad pays, how are there so many in the trade P —as I believe, Sir, there is no other place in the Colonies where there are so many business people, for tbe population as on the Thames. " Practical" is very anxious lest the people of the Thames should be deluded into taking shares in such an absurd thing as a cooperative.bakery and that if the price of bread is brought down the quality will deteriorate as bakers must live. If a co-operative bakery would give us worse bread than we get occasionally, I would think it would be a good spec for Drs Payne and Callan, and Messrs Hall, Dey and Denby, to go in as promoters. Thanking you for inserting.this letter,—l Am &c, Patkhfamilias.