INCREASED PRICES FOR CAKES AND SCONES OPERATE FROM MONDAY

Evening Star, Issue 26103, 17 May 1947, Page 6

INCREASED PRICES FOR CAKES AND SCONES OPERATE FROM MONDAY

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 17. The master bakers report that a 10 per cent, increase in the price of small goods, cakes, and scones will become effective from Monday, in accordance with a decision of the Price Tribunal. The Master Bakers’ Association made application 6ome time ago to the tribunal for price increases because of higher costs and, in particular, because of the removal of the subsidy on sugar, which sent the price of sugar up by about 3d. The tribunal, however, has fixed prices substantially below those sought by the bakers ana an appeal has been entered. The bakers estimated the increased cost of some ingredients as high as 134 per-cent. The tribunal has set out the full list of prices cake by cake and scone by scone:— Small cakes, by the dozen (formerly Is 3d): One cake l*d, two 3d, three 4sd, four sid, five 7d, six Bsd, seven 9Jd, eight lid, nine Is id, ten Is 2d, eleven Is 3d, twelve Is 4id. There are similar cake-by-cake increases for cream cakes, which are increased from Is 6d a dozen to Is 7id a dozen and 2d for the first one against lid under the old prices. Buns, doughnuts, large . scones, pikelets, and cream buns are increased from Is a dozen to Is Id a dozen, and small scones from 8d a dozen to Bid a dozen. For these items, too, there is a bun-bv-bun scale of charges. Coffee buns, which were 4d, are to be 4id. All other goods—block .cake, sponges, and sponge sandwiches —are to be increased by 10 per cent., moving up to the next highest half-penny. For instance, with the increase calculated this way block cake, now selling at Is a lb, will increase to 13 lid. The bakers believe that the detailed cake-by-cake scale will be far too complicated for practical business and have objected to it. Some say that it will be so difficult to operate that it may inevitably be discarded in actual practice. ■