THE PRICE OF BREAD

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 54, 6 March 1899, Page 6

THE PRICE OF BREAD

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—lt being very evident from the letters of your correspondents 'F. Byford' and 'Something to Learn' that much misconception exists as to the manipulation and cost of bread, will you kindly allow me space once more and for the last time to elucidate the facts?

As bread cannot be made without water, neither can the loaf be delivered until evaporation has taken place. Yeast adds to the volume without increasing the weight of bread, the cost of the same having to be added to that of the flour. Neither potatoes nor alum are used in bread now-a-days, and I challenge anyone to prove the contrary so far as Auckland .is concerned. The illogical statement of 'F. Byford' that because bread was sold at 3d per loaf with flour at £13 per ton It must bear a profit (meaning, of course, a fair and reasonable one) when at £8 10/ serves only to amuse; besides, I deny (except during the transition stage) that such was the fact. For several months while flour "was £13 per ton, all the leading bakers In Auckland were charging 3Jd per loaf.

Having shown that with flour at £9 per ton a 21b loaf costs the baker 2 8-25 d, leaving only 17-25 of a penny to pay all the items enumerated in my previous letter before any profit can be realised, 'F. Byford' must have got a little 'mixed' to have arrived at his 120 per cent. I reiterate my formerly expressed assurance that competition being more alive than ever in Auckland, especially in the bakers' trade, the public run no risk of paying a fraction beyond the barest living margin.

I am not a baker or confectioner, but boingf well acquainted with the trade am fully justified In assuming the norn de plume of

ONE WHO KNOWS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The frequent agitation ov%r the price of bread in Auckland argues an entire lack of system in its regulation. We aro often gainers by learning how other people do tilings; so I may as well relate how the price of this commodity is regulated where I formerly lived.

Both flour and bread were sold by the Etono; 141bs was a stone of flour, 161bs of bread. The retail price of the stone of flour controlled the 161bs of bread, each being sold at the same price, as near as divisible. If flour were 2/ per stone, the 21b loaf would be 3d, the 41b or 'quartern' 6d;. most of the bread was baked In 'quarterns' nearly square, which Is a much more economical size and shape for everyone than the 21b common here. Practical experience proved that the stone of flour raiulo five quarterns or 201b3 of bread; one quartern' was thus reckoned for the baker, four'quarterns for the consumer. Thta gave 20 per cent., or 4/ in the £~ return on the baking. The retail price of flour was reckoned on a profit of 3/ In tHe £, making a total of 7/ in the £ on the output. Now see how this arrangement works out to the present price of flour in Auckland, viz., £8 1/6 net per ton; 8/ in the £ would make the retail price £9 10/, as the 8/ was taken off the gross, not added on the net. Thus £9 10/ represents the retail price of 20001bs of flour, making 2Ss7lba of broad. The 21b loaf on the above basis of 7/ in the £ for labour, etc., should coat the consumer only a shade over 24d. In conclusion, let us see what the present price of 3d per loaf makes. 20001bs flour makes 2Ss7lbs bread— 142SS loaves at 3d—£l7 17/13; deduct cost of flour, £8 1/6. and there is £9 15/71 left for labour and firing—over 120 per cent.—l am, etc.,

OLD COUNTRY.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln answer to your correspondents 'P. Byford' and 'Something to Learn,' it Is very evident they do not belong to the baking trade, for they certainly have a good deal to learn. I beg to correct 'F. Byford' and also give him a little information. When the price of flour was £13 per ton bread was 3Jd per loaf. 'F. Byford' mentions large quantities of water, yeast, and alum; the two first are absolutely necessary for bread-making1, but alum is not.

Possibly 'F. Byford' does not know that alum is found in the glutinous part of flour, and that flour contains alum in greater or less quantities, according to the nature of the ground in which the wheat is grown.

Flour costs, as 'F. Byford' states, £8 10/ per ton, and with the other necessary ingredients will make 1400 21b loaves per ton.

A baker whose trade is one ton per week gets a return of £17 1/ at 3d per loaf,, which after deducting the price of the flour, £8 10/, leaves him £8 11/ for living, rent, fuel, gas, horse feed, yeast, potatoes, and general wear and tear.

I do not think the public have much to complain of in the price of bread.—l am, etc.,

BAKER