BREAD PRICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 130, 4 June 1934, Page 3

BREAD PRICES.

FIXATION POWERS. PETITION FROM BAKERS. UNFAIR TRADING ALLEGED. A petition is being circulated in the bakery trade with the object of requesting the Government to exercise its powers under the Board of Trade Act, to | establish what is termed fair trading j conditions in the retail bread trade. | It would appear from the wording of I the petition that direct Government action is desired, but a prominent baker asserted to-day that this was not the object. If (lour and bread were removed from the operation of the Commercial Trusts Act, as was done in the case of tobacco, then the industry could manage its own affairs, and lix prices which it icgarded as economic. "With the object of establishing failtrading conditions in the retail bread tiade, protecting both the consumer and manufacturer of bread, the Government, should exercise its authority under the Board of Trade Act, 1919,"- reads the petition. It further states that the present unfair and uneconomic trading oil the part of many re-sellers of bread is making it impossible for bakers to continue in business on a payable basis. It is claimed that the position has become general throughout the Dominion. Many traders are stocking numerous other lines, and offering bread at a price at which it is impossible for the baker to compete. These traders are not looking for profit in bread, but are satisfied to depend upon the profit derived from other articles likely to be purchased by the consumer at the time he buys cheap loaf, whereas the baker is compelled to depend entirely upon the profit earned from the sale of the loaf. The apparent gain to the consumer by pricecutting is small, not more than 3d or 4d a week. It is claimed that "cutting" tactics are forcing tho bakers into economies which must result in further unemployment, and are rendering more difficult the. arrangement of equitable wages and eon ditions of labour. The family baker is increasing rapidly, and paid labour is giaduallv being dispensed with. Cases are on record of the wife and family oi the baker being forced into the bake house in an endeavour to keep down costs. The petition concludes with the submission that it is not in the best interests of the community to obtain bread at such a price as would lead to the impoverishment and eventual bankruptcy of many bakers.