SUNDAY BAKING

Evening Star, Issue 22938, 21 April 1938, Page 7

SUNDAY BAKING

"PIRATES "AT WORK EASTER LOSSES IN AUCKLAND IPbb United Pebss association^ AUCKLAND. Apl. 20., Heavy losses were suffered by a number of Auckland master bakers during the Easter period through the activities of “pirate bakers,” a master baker stated, and he estimated that he and others lost fully 25 per cent, of the sales they should have made. According to the award the employers of labour were not permitted to bake on statutory holidays and consequent! v the bread they baked on Saturday was for sale on Monday. The “pirate bakers,” he said, had baked on Sunday and flooded the market on Monday, with fresh bread: consequently the re-sellsrs had returned to the master bakers about a quarter of the bread they had looked upon as being sold. In a statement he said that he and others in a similar position sold a large proportion of their bread wholesale to shops. Before baking on Saturday bis firm went to no little trouble to estimate hw much bread it would need to bake to carry over to Easter Monday. About 200 shops ware called upon and their requirements estimated. No slight sum was spent in penalty and overtime to execute the orders. “Everythhg went well until our vans referred to-day,” he continued, “ when the Tans brought back as much as 25 per cert. of their Saturday’s sales, due. entirely to the fact that fresh bread had been ddivered to the shops on Easter Monday. The law says that on this day I must give my employees a holiday and ?ay them for it. Some of our customeis told us they had bread ordered and*paid for, and when the people found there was fresh bread to be had they went and asked for their money , back did left shopkeepers with the bread on their hands. To-day we had to take tais bread back.” “The total;waste on stale returns over the Easier week-end would be an eye-openei I am convinced that for every fresh loaf sold in Auckland to-day a stale die would be fed to the pigs some timi during this week. 1 feel sure that if the authorities learn of the colossal 1 waste caused by this sort of thing tley will do something about it.” The matter wis referred to Mr S. S. Green, secretary to the Auckland Master Bakers’ Association. He said the experience o\er the recent holiday period had been-a disastrous one for the master bakejs. There were, he said, at least a dtzen “pirate bakers” in Auckland, an! the position was such that he had notified the Department of Labour. The present law was full of loopholes, iand it was the intention of the association to have the matter placed before the Government.