REVIEW OF BREAD PRICES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25970, 25 November 1949, Page 6

REVIEW OF BREAD PRICES

Accountants’ Inquiry Proposed BAKERS’ LETTER TO MINISTER A proposition that three practising accountants should review bread prices, and that their decision on the relief to be given to the baking industry should be accepted as conclusive by the Government and by the federation has been made to the Minister in charge of Stabilisation (Mr A. H Nordmeyer) by the New Zealand Federation of Bakers and Pastrycooks. The Minister has been given until noon next Monday to reply. This action follows long meetings of the federation’s council in Christchurch this week to consider the recent Price Tribunal decision that bread prices sho,uld remain unchanged, that some delivery charges should be increased, and that a higher subsidy on flour be allowed to bakers. “The position is considered so serious for the industry that a complete review of the evidence has been proposed,” said Mr George R. Burrowes, national secretary of the federation, last evening. “My council suggests that such a review should be made by three practising public accountants—one to be appointed by the Government, one by the federation, and a third by the two previously-appointed accountants,” Mr Burrowes said in a letter to the Minister. “These three accountants should be directed to consider the whole of the facts and figures placed before the tribunal by the price division and by the federation, and should decide on that evidence what relief is to be granted to the industry (both in respect of the price of all bread sold over the counter, and all bread privately delivered); also by what method or methods the relief should be made effective; and the date from which such relief should operate. “The decision of this body would be accepted as final and conclusive by the Government and the members of the federation.

“The counpi-1 of the federation is sure that the Government desires to see, justice done to the industry. It is evident that in this particular case justice has not been done. As the matter is one of extreme urgency, my council has instructed me to ask for your decision by noon on November 28 as to whether or not you will agree to the review suggested. A special meeting of the council is being called to consider your reply.” . In a preamble about the federation s application to the Price Tribunal for an increase, in the price of bread, Mr Burrowes said that this was for “an increase of one-halfpenny on the over-the-counter price of all loaves. The decision given by the tribunal provides for a subsidy on flour, which would represent a relief to the main portion of the industry of approximately 17 per cent, of that applied for. "The decision of the tribunal, following as it does on several years of repressive control, has caused Domin-ion-wide resentment in the industry, and it falls so far short of providing the relief justified by the uncontradicted evidence that my council is of the opinion that the evidence has either been misinterpreted ot overlooked by the tribunal,” Mr Burrowes said in his letter.