ROOM FOR ECONOMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 18, 22 January 1929, Page 9

ROOM FOR ECONOMY.

DISTRIBUTION OF BREAD.

MINISTERS SUGGESTION. MARKED EFFECT ON PRICE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The suggestion that the cost of distribution of bread could be reduced was made by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe, when addressing the Dominion conference of the Master Bakers' and Pastrycooks' Association. "With some trepidation, as a new Minister, I hesitate to touch upon the question of the better distribution of bread," said Mr. Cobbe, "but I know it is generally admitted in the trade itself that the cost of distribution is extremely high. Any improvement which can be effected in relation to the actual cost of production may, I believe, be relatively unimportant compared with the savings which I am inclined to think could be made if distribution, particularly in the main centres, were better organised. "My Department informs me that the cost of distribution*often runs as high as Id per 21b loaf, and in some cases this figure is exceeded. When we consider this cost in comparison with the cost of the main item, namely, flour itself, its importance becomes most marked. If your conference, therefore, or your local associations, could find some _ method of establishing better organised distribution, I am sure they would be doing excellent work in the interests of the trade and of the public."