DEAR BREAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 162, 9 July 1907, Page 7

DEAR BREAD.

£Io the Editor.} XT. '~ I *""* been ■waitane to see if £L A 7S"I price of bread as from the Ist inst As they have not done so, I desire to lav a few farts before the nxunero^ £JZ them up to the first day of September • A ??™S " haidl7 a baker of repute in Aoekland who has not negotiated for supplies at that figure. From the eight 01 ahmagS there haß be deducted the value of the sacks; within the last month one thousand guaranteed sound second-hand sacks were sold lo.b. Onehunga at seven shillings and threepence per dozen, so the ten sacks which contain a ton of flour are worth at least five shillings, reducing the price of the flour to eight pounds ten shilling per ton. The ton of flour makes 680 loaves of four pounds each, which, at sevenpence, amount in varue to £19 16/8. I asked one of my sons what he tnought would be a fair net profit for the bajser who supplies us to make per year on his bread alone, and he replied £50 per month, say, £600 per annum. I said: .1 quite agree with you, but our baker manufactures twenty tons of flour per month into bread, 240 tons per year, and he is making a clear net profit of £5 16/S per ton, nearly thirteen hundred pounds per annum, not taking into consideration his small goods, a very lucrative branch of his business. The bakers have become rich, but the breadwinners have had to pay through the nose. There are hundreds of breadwinners among your subscribers who have fixed incomes, and they each have to pay one shilling per week more for their bread than is just and reasonable. In these days, when the necessaries of life are so dear, that one shilling per week is a serious item, for it would pay for a daily cop of the "Star" and take the breadwinner homeward on the penny section of the tramway every evening. I notice in the South (where the bakers have to pay more for their flour) the price of bread has in some cases been reduced, and in other cases a co-operative bakery has been started. Are we in Auckland to tamely submit to the present state of -affairs ?—I am, etc, A VICTIM.