RISE DESIRED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 80, 1 October 1938, Page 21

RISE DESIRED

COSTS ARE GREATER

NO NEGOTIATIONS YET

(By Telecraph —Press Association.)

WANGANUI, September 30,

"No agreement has been entered into between the Government and the Master Bakers' Association," said Mr. W. H. S. Newsome, president of the New Zealand Master Bakers' Association, when invited tonight to comment on the statement of Mr. Meade, Dunedin, and the denial by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr. Sullivan.

"The Master Bakers' Association, for some time past, has been seeking an interview with the Government with a view to arranging a new price for bread," continued Mr. Ncwsome. "Bread is now being-sold in Wanganui at prices fixed early in 1936, and it is plain that since then costs involved in bread-making have increased considerably. Included in these increased costs are higher wages awarded by the Arbitration Court. Clearly the 1936 price cannot now stand.

"In view of changed conditions, the Minister of Industries and Commerce promised to arrange a meeting shortly after the close of the Parliamentary session, but advice has been received that such a meeting is not now possible. The matter of the revision of prices of bread has still to be decided, but it is not true to say that an agreement has been made and to say that a condition of that agreement is that it shall not'be.revealed until after the Gerieral Elections is wide of the mark.

"It is not generally realised that the cost of bread in the average family budget is small, and the attention paid to it is out of proportion to its real significance," asserted Mr. Newsome.

"At the annual conference of the bakery trade, held at Napier in February last, the following remit was carried unanimously: 'That in view of official statistics showing bread as representing merely 2.214 per cent, of the average family living expense, this conference of New Zealand master bakers and pastrycooks directs the executive to make strong representation objecting to the bakery industry being used for political purposes by any Government.' The industry would prefer to be left out of the political axena," concluded Mr. Newsome.