EARLY BAKING

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 5, 17 October 1941, Page 3

EARLY BAKING

DIFFICULTIES 56 YEARS AGO. TROUBLES IN THE DEPRESSION. MR W. BRYANT’S EXPERIENCES. Conditions in Ashburton 56 years ago were very different from those of the present day, particularly where the bakery business is concerned, and something of the difficulties which had to be faced were outlined to a “Guardian” reporter who had a chat with Mr W. Bryant, of Timvald, yesterday afternoon.

For a whole week, after he had been

in Ashburton for a short time, Mr Bryant was the only person baking bread in Ashburton and he delivered 500 large loaves in a day about that time. He was-working day and night, baking five batches of bread. Only 20 years of age when he came to Ashburton, Mr Bryant found work with Airs Morriss, who was operating a baker’s shop in- the Triangle, in premises later burnt down but rebuilt and at present occupied by a bakery. The oven of the original business is still in position at the rear of the shop, though long since out of use. The times were hard; there was little work, prices of primary produce were low and there was no money about. The bakers had all given up business, being unable to carry on, and the flourmills were doing the. baking. Mrs Morriss's shop was baking the flour made by her husband at his mill at Westerfield. The Canterbury flourmill opened a shop in

East Street, now being conducted as ,a millinery shop.

Starts On His Own.

After working at the Triangle bakery shop for 10 months, during which he received 25s a week and his food, Air

Bryant decided to start a bakery of his own, despite the poor outlook in the industry. He had been working long hours, often having to go out on his delivery round without his breakfast. At. times his round took him to the Police Station about breakfast time and the constable in charge would be found cooking bis own breakfast. Air Bryant was invited, on those days, to share the meal of the man in blue.

■ Taking premises in Havelock Street, behind what is now a butcher’s shop, Mr Bryant, got to work on his own business. He bought a plant from one of the bakers who had gone out of business and installed it in one of the tjyo rooms he had taken over. The other room was used for the storage of flour. He went to an auction room and bougjit a mattress and this he installed in the flour room", which also became his bedroom. He started with a capital of £6O and of this be paid £25 for a horse and delivery cart. He was still not 21 years of age. He bad no shop; he merely baked bread and delivered it, a work which involved him in long hours. Eggs 4£d a Dozen. “They were hard times, then,” said Air Bryant. t “Eggs cost 4} cl a dozen, pastry butter was 4d a lb and the best butter was 6d, with some of it at Bd, but no higher. All this had a big effect on the town, which was depending then on the prosperity of the country even more than it is to-day. A side of mutton could, be bought for 3s and a whole lamb cost 65.”

After a while, Air Bryant decided to expand his business and took a shop in Havelock Street, now occupied as an hotel agency. There was living space there and his sister came to Ashburton and kept house for him. Flour was costing £ll a ton then, and the retail price of a four-pound loaf was 5d delivered.

The financial position of the country became Worse. Wheat prices fell to Is 6d a bushel and oats to lOd a bushel.

“A man named Arker, an American, came to Ashburton .at that time,” said Air Bryant, “and called meetings of farmers all over the County. He urged them to hold their wheat, as the price was bound to go up. He got hold of me and advised me to buy flour wherever I could. It was then £6 5s a ton, 12s 3d a sack. What he said sounded all right to me so I took his advice. 1 went to the Bank of New Zealand. I had no capital, no security, but I asked them to lend me £9OO. The manager told me to call back the next day. I did, and lie said I could have the money. 2500 Sacks of Flour. “1 bought a line of 50 tons of flour from the mill at AVakanui, and I got some from Temuka. I bought it everywhere, till I had 250 tons—2soo sacks of it. I couldn’t have baked all that in 10 years, but there it was; I had it. “A month later, the price went up to £l4 a ton. It soon slipped back to £lO, hut the price remained there for a considerable time,” Air Bryant added. “There were lots of ups and downs. A working men’s co-operative concern was started, selling bread and groceries. It cut the price of bread to 4d for a 4lb loaf to try to put me out, but they had no hope; 1 had the flour. They sold pound cake at 6d a lb and small goods at 6d a dozen, but when ! the rise in flour prices came they had no stocks and I went on while they went out. 1 was only a boy then, and there I was with 2500 sacks of flour on hand. They came for it from all over Canterbury. That put me on my feet.”

In the years following he built up a very prosperous business, among which was the restaurant and bar at the Ashburton railway station, which he carried on till 1919, when the Government took over the restaurant itself, the bar having been closed when Ashburton voted in prohibition in 1901. Air Bryant said that he put all his savings into property and besides building 15 houses for working men’s use he built three shops. When he went, to Jinwald deKver-

ing bread in the early days he often had to wado through water up to his waist to reach the houses in rainy Weather. Mr Bryant said that when he had been in Ashburton a little while he decided that he had had enough and that he should return to Christchurch, but though he had given his employei a week’s notice, he. stayed on. Mr Bryant holds several important positions in Ashburton to-day, among them being that of chairman of the Ashburton Hospital Board and chairman of directors of the Ashburton Loan and Investment Society and Bank of Deposit.